The Evil Dead: The Novelization
by PLPwriter
Summary: A horrific, and highly dramatic re-imagining of the 1st and 2nd Evil Dead films. The same plot and characters, but with drastic changes in tone and pacing. This is an all-out serious horror story, kids, not for the faint of heart! T for violence and M for sexual content/sexual assault by monsters.
1. Chapter 1

The Evil Dead

CHAPTER ONE

"S-Mart to Damnation's Road"

"Ash, price check, Aisle three. Price check, Aisle three." The intercom squawked. Ash blinked, trying to focus his attention on the customer currently speaking to him. A feat which proved difficult considering how mentally checked out he was. "Um, Hardware, aisle 12," he said, indicating the appropriate direction. The customer had FIRST asked him which department they were in (annoyingly, Ash had been standing in front of a large 'Housewares' sign throughout the conversation), then asked if that department carried wire cutters. Ash had calmly and politely directed them to the right place, and now the overweight woman wearing a belly blouse and short shorts wobbled her way towards it. "Shop Smart, shop S-Mart." He called to her as an afterthought.

Ash was a tall, dark-haired young man with slender build and what most had always described as a "movie star chin". His eyes were a light brown and were usually wide open, which his girlfriend had always told him she loved. He was now 23 years old, had been a stock boy at S-Mart for all three years of college so far, and at first he'd thought it was a great job to pay his way through, but these days… Not so much. He hadn't had a day off work in months, and with Spring Break approaching, it was time to get AWAY from S-Mart for a bit. Housewares department would just have to get along without him for a week, meanwhile he would be shacked up with his girlfriend Linda, his best friend Scotty, and Scott's girlfriend Shelly.

Ash made his way up aisle three of Housewares and peered around the corner towards the checkout lines, spotting Linda at number 4 as usual. She looked up from scanning groceries and smiled at him. He pointed to his watch and mouthed '20 more minutes!', mock pumping his fist in the air in triumph. She laughed slightly, nodding and rolling her eyes as she finished the customer's cart off. Ash looked longingly at her a moment longer, then turned, whistling as he strolled down the aisle towards the back.

Ted, another Housewares employee was crouched at the opposite end-cap of the aisle and looked as though he was about to fall asleep mid-placement of the toaster in his hand. He was setting up the display for their cooking appliance sale. Ash strolled up and leaned on the rack. "Hey Ted, you think you'll be finished by the time I clock out?" He asked. "I'm really anxious to get outta here on-time today."

Ted looked up at him, obviously irritated. "What, you're in charge of Housewares, now you think you can just boss us all around?" He asked. Ted was a college dropout, and never liked Ash much. Ash was tall, handsome and good with women, whereas Ted couldn't talk to most regular people, being short, skinny as hell, and had to wear thick glasses all the time. Not to mention his extensive wardrobe of sweater-vests…

"Well, not everyone, but you definitely, because you work in Housewares… Which I'm in charge of." Ash said, smirking. "Not what I meant though, pal. I'm just anxious to get out because I'm headin' up into the mountains after work today."

"Oh really?" Ted asked, not really seeming to care as he finished arranging the row of toasters.

"Yup. One whole week's vacation with Linda at a nice cozy cabin in the woods." Ash said, leaning against the rack, thinking. "Its gonna be JUST what I needed. No work, no traffic, nothing to bother me…"

"Ash! Phone for you!" Earl said from the Housewares stock room door. Ash frowned, who could be calling now?

He headed over to where Earl had been standing, and picked up the phone. "S-Mart Housewares department, how can we help YOU shop Smart today?" He mumbled in robotic efficiency.

"Hello Ashley." A female voice said, which made his teeth grind in irritation. Only two people in the entire world called him by his full first name… His mother and his sister. Judging by the voice, it was the former.

"Hi mom." Ash said, un-enthused. "Everything okay?"

"Yes yes, nothing to be concerned about."

"Well then what's up? Because I'm at work, and I gotta get out of here on-time so the others and I can get up to the cabin before dark."

"Oh, you know, just wanted to say have a nice trip… and to ask you a favor.

'Here it comes…' He thought. "What kind of favor?" He asked.

"Well, your sister has been having some problems adjusting to college life, and she hasn't really made any friends yet."

"Oh no, I know exactly where you're going with this, and the answer is no!" Ash said, trying to remain calm.

"Ashley, she's your sister. You've got a duty as her big brother to help her with this transition!" His mom commanded.

"But this is my only vacation all year!" Ash countered, rubbing his head in irritation.

"Ashley, I never ask you to do anything, we pay for your college, we gave you the car, and then you changed your major so abruptly, you barely ever come visit…"

There was a reason for that, Ash hadn't gotten along with his family very well since the aforementioned major change. Ash had never wanted to get into engineering, but his dad, who was a 4th Generation Engineer, had insisted.

"Look mom, even if I DID say yes, there's no way she COULD come, we're leaving right after I get out of work in…" He trailed off, checking his watch. "Two minutes!"

"Well she's already there." His mother said.

"What!" Ash demanded. "You didn't even ask first?"

"We didn't have time. Your father and I have been having problems lately, and we didn't want Cheryl around to get upset on top of the problems she's been having."

"That's not my problem though!" Ash said. "You and dad ALWAYS fight."

"You need to take responsibility and be a man now, Ashley." His mother said, his full name contradicting the manliness she was obviously hoping to inspire in him. "I know you'll do the right thing, honey. I love you, goodbye."

With that, the line clicked, and went dead. Ash slammed the phone down and fell onto the stool next to the phone hangup spot. He groaned and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Stupid…"

"Well that's not very nice!" Linda said, suddenly appearing behind him and crushing him in a hug, laughing. "I'd never call YOU stupid."

"Heh…" Ash said, forcedly. "Linda, listen," he began, standing and turning to face her, taking her hands. "That was my mom on the phone. Apparently her and my father sent Cheryl to visit me earlier today… She's at my dorm right now I guess."

Linda tilted her head. "You didn't tell me?"

"I didn't know." He said, shrugging. "She's insisting that I take Cheryl along, and I might just have to."

Linda frowned. "Well I was hoping it would just be us…"

"Scotty and Shelly will be there though." Ash reminded her.

"Yeah, but those two are our friends, Cheryl is your sister, its going to be a little awkward."

"Well if you're uncomfortable-" Ash started to say, hoping to have an excuse to tell Cheryl.

"-but! I understand you want to be a good brother." Linda said, smiling and kissing him on the cheek. "And I love you for it."

"Yeah… a good big brother…" Ash said, his shoulders drooping a bit. "That's me."

...

The 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile groaned in protest a bit as it rolled up onto the slightly inclined parking space and Ash put the brake on. The car was old, and seemed to be in crappy condition, never starting quick, the windows didn't roll down properly, but nothing ever actually broke down on it. The engine always responded (when it felt like it, but it always responded nonetheless), the A/C was always cold, and the heater was always hot, so Ash never complained. In fact, "The Classic" as he dubbed it, was where Ash had "become a man", so it naturally held a special place in the guy's heart.

Ash wasn't thinking about any of this though, he sighed, and climbed out of the car, waving to the short, skinny girl up by the entrance to the dorm, sitting on a bench next to a duffel bag. Cheryl waved back, standing up. She was wearing a dark-colored dress and had her hair long, but pulled back in a bandana. She was a few years younger than Ash was, and looked nothing like him, more resembling their mother, whereas Ash looked like their father. She was slender-faced and attractive, but she was currently in her "artsy" phase though. Ash could see this as he approached her and saw that sketchbook still firmly clutched under her arm. "Hey sis." He said, hugging her.

"Hey Ashley." She said, making him cringe again. "Sorry mom made me spoil your getaway."

"Hey, no worries, kiddo." Ash said, lightly patting her on the shoulder. "I'm happy to help you get outta that house for a little while."

"Well, you do kinda owe me anyways… Its your fault I couldn't go AWAY for college."

"Hey, I didn't ask them to pay for my school." Ash said, frowning.

She rolled her eyes, fake punching him. "No big. I'll deal." She said, heading to the car to say hello to Linda.

Ash meanwhile was heading upstairs, unbuttoning the powder-blue S-Mart smock he was forced to wear, unclipping the nametag as he entered his dormitory. His roommate was out for the day it seemed, which suited Ash just fine, now he wouldn't have to hear the guy bitch about Ash's Engineering projects laying about. He had a fondness for fiddling with old engine pieces and had a knack for fixing broken ones.

Ash tossed the S-Mart smock over his desk chair and quickly pulled off his necktie, tossing it aside as well. He opted against dirtying up another shirt, so he simply kept the blue button-down collared shirt he was wearing, but decided to kick off the black slacks from work, in favor of some brown dickies pants. After all, they were going up into the woods, right? The last thing he made sure to bring was the small blue box he'd gotten for Linda at the jewelry store a week prior. Once again hoping she'd like it, he pocketed the item, and headed out.

...

An hour later, Scotty and Shelly piled into the car with them. Scott was a little shorter than Ash, with blonde hair. He dressed a lot more 'trendy' than Ash did, having grown into a bit more of a preppy guy than his dark-haired friend. Scott also fancied himself a sports star, even though he spent most of his High School football years on the bench pretending he was important. Scotty had been Ash's friend since they were kids, but Ash was never quite sure why. He was bossy and pig-headed, but for some reason, they got along so well, and Ash would trust the guy with his life if he had to. Loyal friends were hard to come by these days, so they both appreciated the backup when necessary.

"Kinda full in here…" Scott said, obviously referring to Cheryl.

"Sorry." Cheryl mumbled.

"Don't apologize." Ash said. "It's no trouble at all, sis." Ash then shot Scott a dirty look, and started the car up, heading South.

"So what's this place like?" Shelly asked from the back as they got onto the expressway.. She was a short, big-breasted girl with long, curly black hair, light green eyes and pouting lips. Shelly and Scott had only been dating a few weeks, but it was clear that the two weren't together because their personalities matched up so well.

"It's a little run-down, but its right up in the mountains." Ash offered as he navigated through the steadily thinning Michigan traffic. "Best part is, we're getting it so cheap."

"Yeah, why ARE we getting it so cheap?" Shelly asked.

"Well, it might not be in that good of shape." Scotty offered.

"You mean nobody has seen this place yet?" Shelly asked.

"It might not be so bad." Ash offered.

Linda shook her head in agreement. "Nah."

"I mean, its probably well-cared for."

Linda nodded, over-enthusiastically. "Yeah."

Ash smiled. This was a bit that Linda did sometimes when she was playing "blindly supporting girlfriend". "Actually it might be kinda nice."

She nodded again, just as falsely. "Yeah."

The drive was quiet for a bit of time after that. Ash got them off the interstate, heading towards the Wisconsin border. Their destination was still in Michigan, but deep out in the woods, which meant nobody would be around to bother them.

...

_The small pond was filled with branches, leaves, and even an old car long-abandoned and rotted by time and the elements. The thing in the woods glided across the surface of the water, not touching it, but the water was still disturbed by its presence. In truth, the thing that floated there wasn't actually there, it existed on a different plane than that of the pond, but the mere IDEA of the thing disturbed the water enough to make it move away from it's presence. It was unnatural, and dangerous, and even water, an un-living element of the Earth, knew this._

_The thing continued to glide, past the old car, which seemed to creak and groan a bit, almost as though it was trying to move away from it as well, and then it made its way up the bank of the pond, over a hill nearby it. The thing sensed something different coming, something… attractive to it. It had been months now since anything had even held its attention. The locals stayed away from the area around the cabin, they knew better by now, and the cabin certainly hadn't been inhabited… Now though, it could smell the sweet smell of fresh souls approaching. Young, sinfully thinking souls to swallow whole…_

_..._

"Hey Ash, where are we, anyway?" Scotty asked from the driver's seat. Ash had been on his feet for 8 hours that day, so he switched with Scotty when they stopped for gas, before making their way up the mountain roads towards their final destination.

"Well, we're a few hundred miles north of the border…" Ash said, tracing his finger along the map now in his lap. "Which would put us…"

Scotty waited, but Ash didn't reply. "Yeah?" He asked, turning to look over his shoulder at Ash and the map.

"Which would put us…" He mumbled, trying to figure it out.

...

_The thing in the woods raced, excited. If it had a physical form of any sort that had some kind of mouth, it would have watered. It came up over the top of the hill and looked down, spotting the dark mustard-colored vehicle rounding the bend on the road down below. It also knew a truck was coming the other direction, the driver not paying attention to the juicy souls of the ones in the car. It wanted them._

_..._

"Which would put us right…" Ash continued, poking the map firmly. "Here." He declared, indicating a spot.

Suddenly, the wheel jerked out of Scotty's grip, veering them into the left lane of the small mountain road, right into the path of an oncoming tow truck. 'HONK! HONK HONK!' was what snapped Scotty's attention back to the road and he gripped the wheel again, trying to get out of the way, but the wheel was stuck fast.

"TURN!" Ash shouted, and Shelly screamed in the passenger seat in terror as the truck drew nearer, slamming on its brakes, but it wouldn't have nearly enough time to stop. Just as suddenly though, Scotty managed to wrench the wheel to the right, screeching the old car back into the right place and to safety.

For a time, the car just drove in silence as the passengers all tried to catch their breath and stifle the vomit. "What the hell are you doing, tryin' to kill us!" Ash demanded.

"It's not my fault, its this damn car of yours, the damn wheel just jerked right outta my hand!"

"I don't get it, I just had this thing in for a tune-up yesterday and they said they'd go over everything." Ash said, looking over Scotty at the wheel to see if there was visible damage.

"Well you better take it back, because the damn thing don't work! All that DOES work is this lousy horn!" He shouted angrily, pounding on it and holding it down.

As they passed by a couple fishermen walking down the road, the horn continued to honk, so the men stopped and waved, big stupid-looking smiles on their faces.

"Ah go to hell, I'm not honkin' at you!" Scotty shouted back at them out the window.

Another moment of silence followed, then Scotty chuckled. "Jesus Christ…" He said through a burst of small laughter. Then a few seconds later the others broke out into nervous laughing as well, except for Cheryl, who just brooded in the corner of the back seat.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

"The Cabin"

The road up to the cabin began even off the road from the mountain roads. It split off and passed deep into the woods, almost as though it was another world. Somehow it felt like the group hadn't heard any airplanes, or animal noises, or even the wind. The road curved up and around the mountain, finally coming to a deep ravine with a rushing river far down below it.

As the Oldsmobile slowly crept up to the bridge and came to a halt, Scotty leaned out the window, eyeing the bridge uneasily. "You sure this thing wont just collapse?" He asked.

The girls all shared a look.

"Don't worry, lets go Scotty." Ash said, nudging the seat.

Slowly, the car started moving forward and the bridge, which was thick wooden planks across the iron skeleton structure. The sides raised up and over the length of the gap in an arch shape like half a wagon wheel. Immediately when the wheels touched the wooden planks, the entire structure began to squeal and groan in protest.

"Jesus, the whole thing is coming apart on us!" Shelly shouted.

Ash patted her on the shoulder. "Don't let the noises fool ya girls." He said, sounding very sure of himself. "This thing's as solid as a rock."

'KER-ACK!' was the loud sound they heard and the front right corner of the car jolted downward and everyone jumped, clutched anything they could to brace themselves for their assured death-drop to come.

Ash opened the door to see what had happened, but as soon as he looked down, he froze. He could see the water far down below through a large hole in the bridge planks just to the left of the car. He quickly slammed the door shut again, Scotty hit the gas and the car lurched out of the bridge's plank-hole and bounced forward off the hazardous bridge. As they cleared it, Scotty pointed out the window at a sign that said "Warning: Dangerous Bridge, use at your own risk".

"Well, that could've been useful on the other side…" Ash mumbled as the car rolled on down the tree-covered dirt road that made up the final stretch before their destination.

The woods were eerily silent as the car's engine growled along, lonely and seeming to echo amongst the trees, barren and twisted on either side of the road as the long, winding dirt road went on. Finally, the tree-line parted, and there ahead, was the cabin at last.

Scotty pulled up and parked slightly to the left of the cabin's face, turning off the car. They all stared at it, all felt the exact same sensation of unease and an almost primal urging from within themselves to leave right then and there… but evolution got in the way and threw logic at them, logic that the bridge incident has just put them on edge, that their minds were only playing tricks on them.

The cabin itself was very unassuming to look at, with its low roof that was at an angle as it came from the top to the front porch overhang. The front of the cabin had two steps that went up to the porch, where a small wooden bench swing hung to the right of the door, which was in the center of the cabin's face. On either side of it, there were large knee-to-head length windows, both with closing wooden shutters that were currently closed. The rest of the cabin couldn't be seen very well, as it stretched straight back from the small face of the structure rather than spread out around it.

Scotty slowly got out of the car, making his way up the steps and towards the door. As he did, the steady 'bump… bump… bump…' of the porch swing swaying in the breeze, knocking into the front windowsill steadily. Scott slowly reached for the top of the frame. He felt the keyring there, and pulled it down. Just as he did, the bench stopped swaying. He looked at it a moment, his a shudder going up his back for some reason. "It uh… It's supposed to be one of these on here." He said, glancing at the others, then turning back to the front door, looking at the bench once more.

The lock clicked open as Scott turned the key and he slowly made his way inside. There was an atmosphere of damp, dusty air that the light from the fading sun behind him illuminated, making it look like an old photograph inside. The main room was very large, taking up the entire width of the house itself. There were two more windows on both the left and right sides of the cabin, an old stone fireplace between the windows on the left with a moose head hanging above it, and a couch between the windows on the left-hand wall between those windows. There were three doors in the main room, one straight ahead of the front door, which led down the main hallway, another to the left of that which led into a bedroom, and another to the far left of that one which led to another bedroom. To the right of the hallway door was a desk with a bookshelf next to it, and between the doors on the left sat another bookshelf, both packed with what looked like history books.

Out by the car, Ash, Linda and Shelly began unloading the trunk, with the girls tossing stuff from the trunk to Ash, where he placed it on the ground behind him, all the while yelling "hey!" like they worked at a Hibachi restaurant.

Scotty on the other hand was still exploring. The kitchen was small, but had a little window cut into the wall to the right of the hallway door that looked out into the main room of the cabin, and the hall led Scotty down to the back door, which he opened and spotted another small shed. Curiosity piqued, Scott headed for it.

Opening the door, he found it to be a little work shed, still full of tools. He was curious as to why nobody had stolen them all the way out here, but his attention then drifted to the strange little animal skulls hanging from strings on the rafters. Scott found himself a bit unnerved, especially since he'd seen something similar in a flick he saw recently… He put it out of his mind though, absently spinning the handle of the vice clamp on the workbench, poking at the various tools like shovels and pick-axes, and pausing to briefly admire the red chainsaw hanging from two hooks over the bench.

...

That night, as the group made dinner, Cheryl of course decided she'd rather sit aside with her sketchbook. She stared at the clock on the wall, the pendulum swinging back and forth, emitting a soothing 'click clock click clock click clock' as she worked. Suddenly though, the pendulum simply stopped swinging, freezing to one side, as the clock tolled midnight.

A shiver ran up her spine and she stared at the clock a moment, but then, her hand started to twitch uncontrollably. She looked down at it, at first thinking it was just her shiver, but then she felt her hand grip the pencil in her hand so hard it broke the top portion off. The eraser end tumbled to the floor, but she had the graphite side in a death clutch. She gasped in fear, worried she might be having a seizure or something, and then her hand started to move across the paper, totally under its own influence!

Cheryl groaned in pain as she tried to fight for control of her limb, but it just kept going, drawing a rectangular shape across the sheet. As it drew, she began to panic, cold sweat beading from her brow and she tried to call out for help, but nothing came out. Finally, as the shape seemed to be finished, her hand pushed the pencil so hard it tore the paper a bit, and her hand was suddenly free.

She tossed the pencil and sketchbook aside in horror, kicking the chair backwards out from under her and pressing her back against the wall by the fireplace, bumping the mirror hanging on the wall there. She looked around, panting and almost crying from fear. When nothing happened for a moment, she slowly walked over, picking up the sketchpad from the floor. What the hell had she drawn?

On the paper was a crude three dimensional drawing of what looked like a box… no, a book, and it had some kind of horrible open-mouthed frown on the cover. Cheryl had never seen anything like it before, and had no idea what it was supposed to be. Before she could think any more about it though, a dull 'thud!' sound made her jump. She heard metal rattling and looked past the sketchbook, at the corner of the cabin where the couch sat against the wall and the clock hung above it. She made her way over to the couch and pushed, sliding it aside to reveal a section of the floor was actually a cellar door, with a large iron handle attached, like a dungeon door almost. Mounted to the cellar door were chains and a lock which hung open, which explained the source of the metallic sound, but Cheryl had no idea why it had made the sound-

The door suddenly jolted.

Cheryl jumped again, a little squeak of fear escaping her throat before she clamped a hand over her mouth. She decided not to mess with the door, and instead slid the couch back over it, making sure the leg pressed down on top of the door to keep it pinned.

As she backed away, half-expecting some monster to burst up from below, a hand touched her arm and she screamed, spinning and almost throwing a punch, but stopping short when she saw it was Scotty.

"Woah! Take it easy!" He shouted, holding his hands up in defense.

"Scotty!" She exclaimed, surprised. She looked back at the couch, which hadn't moved, and decided that he probably wouldn't take her seriously… and in all likelihood would probably just make fun of her anyways if she said anything. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure anymore if the first part had even HAPPENED… Maybe she was going insane.

"Cheryl, what's with you?" Scotty asked. "I was just gonna tell you dinner is ready."

"Nothing. It's fine." She said, then headed to the kitchen.

...

Soon after the announcement of dinner was made, the group had gathered at the table to celebrate the start of their spring break. Ash in particular found himself thrilled, as this was a new and exciting thing for him. He'd never been away from home for an extended period of time on his own, he'd also never been off with his friends to do nothing except party either, and of course, he'd never had this much alone time with Linda until now.

"I uh…" Ash began, standing and raising his Dixie cup full of wine. "I'd like very much to propose a toast to all this evening." He said, and Linda smiled at him, also raising her cup. The others followed suit. "As a Greek friend of mine once said…" Ash tried continuing, but suddenly couldn't really remember what the friend had said… He'd never been a good public speaker. "Nis-nis… Tu… Uh… Tu Tu Tarin!" He said, probably horribly butchering the phrase, but he knew that as nobody at the table spoke Greek, it wouldn't be called out.

"Which means?" Shelly asked.

"Party down!" Scott said, laughing and chugging the full amount of his cup. The others laughed as well, drinking their cups.

Ash looked across the table at Cheryl, feeling a twang of guilt for not having even thought of her much since they arrived. At the moment though she seemed to be enjoying herself. At least, enjoying herself as much as his little sister was CAPABLE of.

Suddenly, a loud 'BANG!' came from the living room, followed by a dull 'Thud!' of wood on wood. The group all jumped, Shelly spitting her drink in surprise and covering her mouth right after in a vein attempt to stop it from spilling on her shirt. "Shit, red stains!" She said.

The others all jumped up and rushed into the living room, surrounding the over-turned couch, which was no longer covering up the cellar door… Which was now wide open.

"What is this?" Ash asked, frowning.

"A fruit cellar or something." Scotty said, motioning to the top of the front door. "Must be what the extra key on the key ring is for."

"Lets just close it up" Cheryl insisted. "It was probably just some animal."

"An animal?" Scotty asked. "An animal?" He repeated in shock, then burst out laughing. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, Jesus Christ…" He said, trailing off into a chuckle.

"Well there's something down there." Shelly offered, no longer worrying about the stain on her shirt.

"Yeah you're probably right." Scotty said, then tapped Cheryl with his pocket flashlight. "Here Cheryl, why don't you go check it out?" He said, smirking.

She swatted his hand away. "Forget it Scotty, I'm not going down there!"

"Alright, alright you cowards, I'll go." He said, shaking his head. He turned on the light and started making his way down the stairs, carefully ducking his head down to make sure he didn't hit it on the low-clearance of the cellar door frame.

Ash watched Scotty disappear into the darkness of the cellar and after a moment of silence, he started getting antsy. "Hey, Scotty you find anything?" He called down. No reply. "Scotty?" He repeated, getting down on his hands and knees by the edge. The girls behind him started getting nervous, looking at each other. "Scotty!" Ash shouted, thinking maybe his friend just hadn't heard him. "That's it, I'm going down."

"That was the only flashlight we brought." Linda reminded him.

"Then uh… Gimme the lantern." Ash said, pointing to the propane lamp on the desk by the kitchen window. Linda went over and grabbed it, passing it to Ash.

"Be careful." She said, touching his shoulder.

Ash headed down into the darkness below to look for Scott. He got a sense that the cellar was almost as big as the cabin itself, maybe even a bit bigger, as there was loud echoes of his feet on the steps. He looked down to find dirt floor below him, and as he took a few steps, peered through the darkness to see that the walls were made of square stones, the same kind that the fireplace upstairs was made from.

Ash looked around for his friend, and heard a noise to his left. He turned, peering through the dim light that the lamp gave off and spotting a door just past some gourds that had been hollowed-out and hung from the ceiling like weird Christmas ornaments. Ash pushed past them, heading for the door. "Scotty?" He asked, trying to mask the fear in his voice.

Ash hated Cellars, he'd always been afraid of the one at his Uncle's cabin, and never wanted to go in there. This one was worse by-far. It was full of weird hanging gourds, random junk laying around, a projector sitting in the middle of the room facing a tattered old screen, and a creepy rotted old wood door with a dungeon handle like the cellar door upstairs had been.

He reached for the handle, gripping the cold steel of it and lifting, turning it to unlatch the door. It slowly opened with a bit of force, and a loud 'creeeeeeeeeak' sound echoed through the basement. Ash took another look over his shoulder, paranoid that he was being watched, then headed inside. The side room was even darker than the main room since the light from upstairs wasn't getting in. He slowly made his way in, watching the floor for any potential obstacles, also feeling along the wall for a light switch of some kind.

"BOO!" A voice shouted from right in front of him. Ash jolted back and almost fell right on his rear. He'd been looking at the floor, so he hadn't seen Scotty standing right there. Scott of course began to laugh his ass off, and Ash couldn't help but laugh too.

"The hell are you doing down here?" Ash chuckled.

"Look at this stuff." He said, leading Ash over to a desk in the corner. He flipped on a small goose-neck lamp sitting on top of it, illuminating a few items on the desk. A tape recorder, a strange looking book, and a wicked, ancient looking dagger.

"Jesus, look at this…" Ash said, picking up the book, which felt gross to touch. The front cover was some kind of pale, flesh-toned leather, strangely shaped into a gruesome open-mouthed frown. The leather binding of it seemed to be too… spongy, and almost smelled like a sweaty guy. He flipped it open and inside there was page after page of strange symbols and macabre drawings, depicting severed heads with blank, white eyeballs, creatures with snake tails, humanoid bodies, but with wings sprouted from their sides like bats. Ash was fascinated and horrified at the same time.

"Check this out, a shotgun." Scotty said, breaching it open.

Ash looked up, recognizing the brand from work, it was a double-barrel 12 gauge shotgun. "Nice. Probably still shoots too." He said, then looked back down.

"Yeah probably does." Scotty said, then Ash jumped as two shotgun barrels drifted into his line of sight. Scotty laughed, and Ash did too.

"This thing is the best though." Scotty said, picking up the dagger. The handle looked like a human femur, with ribcage designs running up and down the sides of the grip, and a spine topped with an undersized skull, grinning from the base of the handle. "Kinda looks like your high school girlfriend." Scptty commented with a chuckle.

Unfortunately, Ash couldn't disagree.

"Come on, lets take this stuff up. I'll get the tape recorder, you get the rest." He said, lifting the large, double-spooled recorder up and carrying it towards the steps. Ash gazed down at the book a bit more, feeling an odd sensation as he looked at the grotesque cover, almost like it had a face, and it was looking at him with familiarity. What made it worse, was that he felt like he'd seen it before too…


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"Book of the Dead"

Cheryl sat among the circle of friends, who were all joking and laughing about one thing or another. They'd all set aside the stuff from the cellar, the gun, the recorder, that scary dagger, and the thing that currently had Cheryl chewing her nails in fear… The book. She couldn't help but think that it was the exact same book from her drawing. She knew that was impossible, but somehow… She couldn't shake the feeling.

She hoped that the others would just ignore it, and it would sit in the corner for the rest of the time. She just didn't think messing around with some weird book in a foreign language was a good idea…

"Hey guys, look." Ash said, sliding the recorder to the middle of the group. "This is the recorder that was in the basement, wanna listen?" He asked.

The others all nodded in approval, even Cheryl, desperate for a distraction from thinking about the book. Ash snapped the play button on and the spools began to turn slowly, the recorder making a dull humming sound as it started to play.

"This is professor Raymond Knowby, Department of Ancient History, Log Entry number 2. I've made a significant find in the Castle of Candaar, after journeying there with my wife Henrietta, my daughter Annie and associate professor Ed Helmsly, it was in the rear chamber of the castle that I stumbled upon something remarkable… Necronomicon Ex Mortis, roughly translated: Book of the Dead." The voice over the recorder said.

Cheryl immediately regretted them finding the tape at all, something about all this stuff just made her want to run and hide, more than usual.

"The book is bound in human flesh, inked in human blood, and contains ancient burial rites and funerary incantations. The book also speaks of a spiritual presence, a thing of Evil, that roams the forests and dark bowers of man's domain. It tells that these spirits may lie dormant, but are never truly dead. It is through the recitation of the book's passages that this spirit is recalled to active life and given license to possess the living."

Cheryl had had enough, so she flipped the recorder off. "Hey, what gives? It was just getting good!" Scotty said. Shelly snuggled up closer to him, showing why Scott ACTUALLY wanted to play the creepy tape that scared the girls.

"I just don't wanna hear any more…" Cheryl said, turning away from him and Shelly.

"Ooooooooh" Scotty said, wiggling his fingers at her. "So spookyyyyy!"

"Shut up, Scotty." Cheryl said, irritated.

"Ah come on," Scott said, waving a dismissive hand at her and reaching for the tape recorder. "I just wanna hear the rest of it."

He pressed the play button again and the tape continued on. "Recorded here are the phonetic pronunciations of the passages:" Knowby's voice continued. "Candaar, Estrata, Demontos Candaar, Nosferatus Candaar." Cheryl's hair stood up on the back of her neck as the words were spoken, and although none of the others would have admitted it, so did their's. "Shut it off…" She murmured in a frightened tone.

...

_Sudden energy flowed through the forest, nearby the cabin, red light flowed up from below the piles of leaves, and fog billowed from the opening crevice. The thing in the woods could not feel joy, but if it did… It would have felt it now. The words echoed through its consciousness, giving it new life with each passing moment of the incantation._

_..._

"Shut. it. off." Cheryl repeated, more agitated now, but the others were so enthralled by the bizarre recording that they ignored her.

"Samanrobara hishikento, Amantos Candaar." Knowby continued.

...

_Outside, the thing in the woods surged, rushing towards the cabin now, its life force renewed and ready to do what it was created to do…_

_"Candaar…" Knowby's voice said, now echoing._

...

"Shut it off." Cheryl said, on the verge of panic.

"CANDAAR!" the professor repeated, almost as though the tape was mocking her now.

Finally, Cheryl couldn't stand it any longer, she stood up, covering her ears tightly to block out the horrible sounds coming from it. "SHUT IT OFF!" She screamed in terror. Suddenly behind her, the window shattered and something came flying into the room. She screamed in sheer terror and sprinted down the hallway to her room, slamming the door and locking it.

"Cheryl, wait! It was just-" Linda trailed off, looking at Ash and Scotty as went over to look at the tree branch that had just broken off and fallen into the window to the left of the fireplace where they'd been sitting. "I'd better go check on her."

Ash nodded to Linda, then turned to Scott. "What's the matter with you, you didn't have to play that. You knew it was upsetting her!"

"What'd I do? I just was having a little fun. I didn't see YOU turning it off." He retorted.

"You just don't know when you're taking something too far!" Ash said, lifting the tree branch and shoving it back outside.

"Ah whatever, she's just nuts." Scotty said, waving his hand dismissively.

Ash shook his head, sighing. This was definitely not the way he'd hoped his spring break would be going. Linda was preoccupied taking care of his overreacting sister, and his best friend was being a drunken fool. Scotty walked off to rejoin Shelly by the fireplace, and Ash looked down at the tape recorder. "Bound in human flesh" he repeated, wiping his hands absently on his pants at the thought that he'd touched the book. Outside, he heard the distant sounds of thunder.

...

After awhile, Scotty and Shelly headed into the bedroom, leaving Ash in the main room of the cabin by himself. As his hand touched his pocket, he felt the shape of the blue box still there. Just as he did, the door opened again and Linda came back into the main room. "Hey, Cheryl's fine now, I got her calmed down."

"That's good." Ash said, smiling at her. "Listen, you wanna stay up and listen to the storm a bit?"

"Sure." She said, smiling back at him lovingly. The two of them headed over to the couch and snuggled up with one-another. Ash took her by the hand and they sat there for a time, just listening to the thunder, which Ash couldn't tell if it was getting closer or just in the distance.

Either way, his efforts were focused elsewhere. He slowly and carefully pulled the blue box from his pocket and held it loosely in his hand, which rested on his thigh on the opposite side of Linda, but clearly visible. He then shut his eyes and pretended to sleep.

After a moment, Linda spotted the box and looked at him, making a knowing smile as she slowly reached for the box, watching his eyes. As her hand drew nearer, she looked down at it and Ash opened his eyes all the way. "Hey. Stealing from the blind, eh?"

She smiled. "What's that?"

"Here. See for yourself…" He said, grinning and passing it to her. She excitedly opened the box up, revealing a small, magnifying lens style round glass encased in a silver frame and on a silver chain.

She picked it up and looked at it. "Oh Ash. It's… Beautiful." She said, smiling. Ash of course had no idea that this was a horribly ugly and tacky piece of jewelry, it had looked like a great piece in the jewelry department at S-Mart.

"So what do you think, kiddo?" He asked, his arm around her shoulder.

Linda looked at him lovingly, even if he had terrible taste, he was still so sincere. "I love it, Ash."

"Well what do you say we have some Champaign, eh baby?" He asked, smirking and getting up to grab the bottle. "After all, I'm a man and you're a woman… At least last time I checked." He added with a chuckle. Linda giggled too and kissed him deeply.

...

_Outside, the thing in the woods watched it all, and began its echoing cry for fresh souls. It drifted along the side of the cabin to the next window, which was the first bedroom, and inside was the other boy and his woman, undressing one-another for love making. The boy tugged at her shirt, removing it and his hands eagerly clasped over her bare breasts. She moaned at his touch, and the thing in the woods stirred… It had no sensations, and oftentimes enjoyed indulging them when it had the chance to take people. It watched intently as they fell onto the bed, and the female mounted her mate, the bed beneath them rocking with her movements. As the two feverishly attacked one-another, the thing in the woods decided it would do just that when the time came. It would get to these later though, as its senses had already locked onto the one it wanted first…_

_It drifted along again, coming to the rear room window of the house, and there inside, now wearing a nightgown, was the lonely one… It knew it needed her. It watched as she picked up her sketchbook and looked at the drawing it had compelled her to make._

_"Join us…"_

_Her head looked up. The thing in the woods would have laughed if it could, it had gotten inside her mind, now it just needed to invade her body…_


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

"Mind, Body and Soul"

Cheryl got up, looking out the window for the source of the voice. She was SURE she'd heard it this time, no question about it like before at the cellar door… She got up and put on her robe, going out into the hallway and out the back door, looking around. The lights on the house only illuminated a few feet around the back door, she hesitantly stepped out onto the grass and leaves. "Who's out there?" She demanded.

There was no answer, but she kept hearing the sounds, so she stepped out a bit further, going just to the edge of the light's reach. "I know someone is out here!" She shouted. "I heard you, I heard you in the cellar!"

Her foot drifted forward, passing outside the range of the light and her body soon followed, she somehow felt the need to see what had been terrifying her so much that night… She just couldn't let it go. As she passed into the tree-line though, she felt a thin branch from the tree fall against her shoulder and it held fast. She pushed it away, but another one touched her a moment later, sending shivers up and down her whole body. The branches felt wrong, warm, almost like they were alive as they gripped her body on contact.

Suddenly there were more, from every direction now as they wrapped around her arms and legs. She gasped and pulled back, trying to go back into the light of the cabin's lamp, but the branches suddenly pulled taught, yanking her forward again into the dark. She screamed in fear and tried to pull free once more, but the branches had her now, and they yanked her feet out from under her, pulling her arms up at the same time. She tried keeping herself covered, but the branches actually ripped the robe right off her torso, dragging it away as more moved in to pin her down.

"HELP ME SOMEONE!" She screamed, but she knew nobody would hear her out here. The branches threaded their way around her arms and yanked them away, from her chest, tearing her nightgown in the process and exposing her breast. She screamed louder now. "Please no! NO!" She cried out.

Then she felt it, the branches winding up around her legs, wrapping tightly around them and starting to pull. Her eyes went wide and she looked down, trying to keep her legs closed, but there were too many of the powerful branches, and they yanked her legs open, exposing her. Then another large, thick branch thrust out from the darkness and slide right between her thighs. She tried to scream, but it was too much for her to bare, the pain was overwhelming as the branch entered her, and she writhed around on the ground, her senses overwhelmed by what was happening. She moaned from the sheer helplessness she was experiencing, the fear hit her like a bucket of ice water in the face now, and the smallest, most miniscule part of her consciousness, feeling almost like an outside existence that had just now joined her and tapped into the repressed, wild corner of her being… Enjoyed it. She began to panic.

Feeling a sudden burst of energy, she flung out her hand, grabbing hold of a tree root and pulling. She felt the branches around her legs begin to snap and come apart, and after using all her might, she managed to rip herself free and pull the branch out from inside her. The sensation almost made her throw up, but she forced herself to her feet and sprinted away.

Cheryl screamed bloody murder and didn't even notice all the prickle bushes and thorns stabbing her and scratching her bare legs up, she just didn't want whatever it was back there to catch up to her again. Then there, ahead, she saw the front of the cabin, somehow she'd gone in a total circle. She ran for all she was worth, pumping her arms to get more speed. She reached the door and began pounding on it frantically, slapping her palms against the wood paneling and screamed at the top of her lungs. "HELP! SOMEONE LET ME IN!" She pleaded, but nobody came. She looked back, and didn't see, but FELT the thing out there coming closer. She pounded on the door harder now, panicking. Her eyes wide and darting.

Then she remembered the key ring, and scrabbled up to the top of the door frame, which was a little out of her reach due to her height, so she stood as tall up on her tip-toes as he could, grabbing the ring and pulling… but it was stuck.

...

_The thing in the woods drew nearer, it had tasted her, but wanted more. Her terror was so delicious to it, and it hadn't tasted anything in so long that it was like a drug to it… The thing in the woods sped along after her, drawing nearer to the cabin with each passing second._

...

The keys yanked free and toppled to the floor of the porch. Cheryl dropped down, snatching for them as she felt like she could feel the thing's breath on her back now. Then a hand shot out and grabbed hers. She looked up and saw her brother's concerned face.

"Ashley!" She screamed and pushed into the cabin, slamming the door shut.

"Jesus, Cheryl what happened!" Ash asked, grabbing her shoulders. "Did something in the woods do this to you?" He demanded.

"What's going on?" Scotty asked, emerging from the bedroom with Shelly. Linda was standing there behind Ash, having followed him out when she heard Cheryl screaming.

"No! It was the woods themselves! The woods are alive, Ashley! They're ALIVE!" She screamed, grabbing his shirt tightly, then began to break down crying, shoving her face into his chest.

Ash didn't know what to do, his sister was weeping uncontrollably and she'd been ripped to shreds by something. "Cheryl, maybe you should come lay down." Linda said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm NOT lying down!" She screeched at Linda, then turned to Ash. "Please Ashley, take me back to town, I'm not staying here tonight!"

"Wait, I sure as hell am not leaving anyplace tonight!" Scotty insisted.

"Look, Cheryl," Ash said, trying to keep his voice calm to help her do the same. "just think about how this sounds-"

"I don't care how it sounds!" She said. "Are you gonna take me to town or not?"

Ash looked around at the others, then back at Cheryl. "Sure, of course I will, just think about this on the way-" He started, but she turned and went for her room before he could finish his sentence.

...

Later, outside, Cheryl made her way to the car, now covered up by a heavy coat as Ash led her to the car carefully. He opened her door, putting her into the vehicle and then going around to get in as well. He looked at Linda, who was standing on the porch. "I'll be back soon," He said. "don't worry, she'll be fine."

He shut the car door and put the key in the ignition, turning it. The car didn't turn over though. He frowned, the car hadn't ever done that before, it had always started up for him… So he tried again, letting it rev for longer this time, but it still wouldn't start up.

"You see? It's not gonna let us leave…" Cheryl said to him, as though she was about to cry once more. Ash gave her a look like she was being crazy, then tried once more, and the car started right up like usual.

The others looked on as Ash turned the car around and headed up the dark dirt road back towards the bridge. With the headlights only illuminating a few yards ahead of them, Ash took the road slow, and Cheryl shifted uneasily in her seat the whole way. Ash wasn't sure what had happened to her, but it was definitely more than what she was telling them, and with the way her clothes were torn off like that… Ash began to worry that he'd left his girlfriend up at the cabin with a rapist running around in the woods. Maybe he would talk to the cops in town just in case…

Suddenly, up ahead the bridge sign caught his attention, but it was leaning to the side, and one of the supports was bent horribly out of shape. Ash stopped the car, frowning.

"What?" Cheryl asked. "What is it?" She asked again, her eyes darting around in fear.

Ash didn't reply, getting out of the car and heading forward, towards the bridge, slowly so he didn't step in any holes. He heard Cheryl behind him "Where are you going?" and was about to answer, when he saw it…

...

Cheryl was on the verge of panic in the car. She was alone again, and Ashley wasn't responding. She buried her face in the coat, her legs pulled up to her chest, clamped firmly together. She felt a sickening sensation as she recalled the event with the trees… What disturbed her the most though, was the sensation from the back of her mind while it had been happening… She'd liked it. As small a part as it was, as alien as the idea felt to her then and now… It had still crossed her mind, and since it happened, that nagging feeling of enjoyment had grown into a twitchy craving… She was horrified with herself beyond recognition.

She finally couldn't stand to be alone anymore and got out of the car, storming in Ashley's direction. She froze though as she saw what he'd seen; The Bridge supports were ripped out of position and bent up and towards the car like claws. Cheryl's eyes went wide and she stepped back in awe and horror at the implications. "What the hell could've done this?" Ashley asked, mostly to himself, as he hadn't even noticed Cheryl yet.

"Oh God no!" Cheryl screamed, "Its not gonna let us leave!"

Ash turned, trying to calm her, but she just started crying again and her legs seemed to give out, so he jumped forward, catching her. Her arms thrashed around uncontrollably as she continued to scream and cry. Ash looked once more at the bridge, holding Cheryl closely to comfort her. How the hell were they going to get out of here now?

...

"I know now that the book's passages are more than just superstitious writings…" Knowby's voice said. "I've seen the dark shapes moving in the woods, and I know that whatever I've unleashed unto this Earth is sure to soon come calling… For me."

After the incident at the destroyed bridge, Ash and Cheryl had returned to the Cabin to tell the others. Since then, Cheryl had been sitting off by herself, staring out the window and Ash had just let her recover, knowing she'd come talk to him when the time was right for her. In the meantime though, that bridge had made him think about what Cheryl had said about the woods coming to life… That steel had been bent like rubber, not a feat easily done, so maybe there WAS something unnatural going on. "I fear that the only way to stop those possessed by the book is through the act of bodily dismemberment." Knowby finished, a twang of disgust in his voice.

Now, seated in the main room of the cabin, with Linda and Shelly trying to get Cheryl to come out of her shell and Scotty outside chopping wood, Ash was playing more of the tape, trying to figure out what was happening. Ash had a strange feeling that he and the professor were getting to understand one-another, even though to Ash, he was just a voice on a tape. Still though… He couldn't keep away the notion that the recordings were speaking right to him… Shelly and Linda meanwhile had a deck of cards, and at first had been playing rummy, but it had devolved now to Shelly making Linda think she was psychic by having her guess cards and telling her she was right each time. "Two of… Clubs?" Linda guessed.

Shelly looked at the card, it was the Queen of Hearts. "That's right!" She shouted excitedly.

"Wow! Ash, I keep guessing the cards right!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, truly amazing, Linda…" He replied, focusing on the headphones he was using for the recorder.

"I dunno, maybe its like extra telepathy or something, like ESP?" Linda said, mostly to herself.

"Guess another one." Shelly said.

"Um…" Linda began, touching the sides of her head.

"Queen of Spades…" Cheryl mumbled off to the side.

Shelly looked at it and frowned. "Hey, that- that's right." She said, showing Linda.

"She has it too?" Linda asked.

Shelly flipped to another card. "Four of hearts." Cheryl mumbled again, not even glancing in their direction. Right again. Shelly flipped it again. "Eight of Spades." Shelly stopped flipping the cards and they looked over at Cheryl, concerned. "Two of Spades, Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Clubs!" She shouted, then spun around to face them, her bandaged face was now deathly pale, with an almost gray tone to her skin, and her eyes were blank, white spheres in her eye sockets and she growled at them viciously.

The others all jumped up in surprise, including Ash, who hadn't heard the rest, but now saw her turn. Cheryl suddenly floated up off the ground, levitating above the floorboards, her arms contorting and her head lolling back and forth.

"Why have you disturbed our sleep, awakened us from our ancient slumber?" Cheryl's mouth said, but her voice was distorted, deeper and sounded like there was more than one coming out of her. "You will DIE!" She screamed. "Just like the others before you. One by one we will take you!"

As everyone shrank back against the wall, Scotty came walking in, still holding the axe from wood chopping, and recoiled from her in fear as well. Cheryl's head rolled around and a dull, wet groan came bubbling up from inside her throat as a light green liquid came dribbling from her lips. Then she toppled forward, knocking her art supplies from the windowsill and spilling them onto the floor.

For a moment, nobody knew what to do, Ash could scarcely believe what he'd just seen happen, but he had to check on his sister… So he approached. Scotty and Ash slowly made their way over to where they lay on her back, eyes closed, not appearing to be breathing. Ash looked at the others and Linda approached too, just as concerned as he was.

Suddenly, Cheryl shot up from the ground into a sitting position, raised one of the fallen pencils over her head and rammed it with all her might into Linda's ankle. Linda screeched with horror and agony as Cheryl twisted the writing instrument around in her foot, then ripped it out to stab her again. Ash was faster though, and grabbed Cheryl's wrist to stop it, but she simply back-handed Linda across the face, sending her tumbling backwards into the small lamp table by the door, where she fell to the ground unconscious. Cheryl then grabbed Ash by the throat and sent him flying clear across the room into the bookshelf by the bedroom doors. He hit the shelves hard and inadvertently pulled the shelving unit down on top of himself as he fell.

From underneath the heavy shelves, Ash shook his head to clear the dizziness from it, and saw his sister approaching him, her dead, colorless eyes staring straight at him and she made dark, cackling sounds from her throat as she made her way towards him, her limbs moving in jolting, stiff motions. She raised the bloody pencil into the air again as she drew nearer, but Ash was helpless, pinned under the heavy furniture on top of him.

Scotty rushed forward and grabbed Cheryl by the shoulders. "Cheryl, what the hell are you doing!" He demanded, trying to hold her in place, but she spun him around and shoved him forward, face-first into the hallway door. Just as Cheryl reached Ash and prepared to strike though, Scotty lunged forward, driving the handle of the Axe into Cheryl's stomach, shoving her away from Ash. She toppled backwards next to the open cellar door and tried to sit back up, but Scotty kicked her in the face, sending her rolling backwards down into the cellar, where she struck the steps.

Scott didn't waste any time, he grabbed the open door and slammed it shut, but Cheryl's hands came up and shoved it back open, grabbing his legs and pulling them out from under him. "JOIN US!" She screamed, yanking on his feet. He struck out with the axe handle again though, striking her in the face and knocking her back against the steps, then hit her again to knock her down them. He slammed the door shut and jumped on top of it, quickly running the chain through the latches nailed into the floor and snapping the lock shut. Below, he could feel Cheryl pounding on the door above her, and even with his weight on top of it, he felt it jolt up with each hit. Finally though, she stopped, and all was quiet again.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

"And then there were two"

Light pierced the dimly lit room as Ash entered quietly. He came over to the bed in the corner, where Linda was still unconscious, understandably so. He kneeled down next to the bed and took her hand, checking if she had a fever. She didn't have one, but her pulse was very sporadic.

Ash fought back the urge to panic, and kissed her on the forehead. "It'll be alright, Linda… I promise." He whispered, then got up and left, closing the door behind him.

Out in the main room, Shelly and Scott were sitting on the floor by the fireplace, trying not to look over at the cellar door, which Cheryl was pushing up as far as the chains would allow, staring at them and making strange groaning sounds in her throat the entire time. Ash entered and Cheryl's gaze drifted to him, her hands coming up and gripping the chains holding the door closed too far for her to get out.

"What're we gonna do?" Ash asked, crossing the room towards the others.

"We gotta get out of here." Scott said. "It'll be light in a few hours, then we'll take the bridge and…" He trailed off, realizing that wouldn't be possible.

Cheryl started laughing, slow, steady and bubbling as strangely colored fluids ran from her mouth. Shelly couldn't take it anymore and turned around. "Why does she keep making those horrible noises!"

"I don't know!" Ash shouted. "Just leave her alone, she has to have time to get better!" He said, then fell into a seated position on the couch. Ash knew he was just fooling himself, but he could see that Shelly's terror at the situation was forcing her to be ultra realistic now…

"Her eyes… Just look at her eyes…" She said, tears falling down her cheeks now. "For God's sake what happened to her EYES!" She demanded, looking from one of them to the other for an answer, but nobody had one. Cheryl slowly retracted from the edge of the cellar door, letting it close and she sat on the steps. Laughing harder now.

...

_The thing in the woods' attention perked. It felt another one, and began racing toward the Cabin once more. It smelled the fear, the insanity brewing in their minds, but one in particular seemed to have a weaker will then the others now. The thing reached the cabin, gliding to the front room windows, and looked in._

_"Join us."_

_The dark-haired woman glanced over at the window where it lurked, and the thing in the woods got excited, that was the one. After a moment, her mate helped her to her feet from in front of the fireplace, leading her to the bedroom door. The thing watched the other for a moment longer, then followed its prey, gliding along the side of the cabin to look in through the bedroom window. There, her mate kissed her and she sat down on the bed as he left to go back to join the other male._

_The girl began to cry now, and it tasted delicious to the thing in the woods._

_"Join us."_

_Her head raised and she got up, slowly moving towards the window, peering out to find the source of the sound… It knew she couldn't see it, but she could feel it, which is exactly what the thing in the woods wanted… It moved forward, forcefully directing its energies and she backed away in sweet, delectable fear. The thing roared with anticipation and the window glass shattered, knocking the very frame of the window in. The woman covered herself in terror, and a vain attempt to shield herself from it._

_..._

Scotty jumped to his feet, looking towards the bedroom. That scream was Shelly, and the breaking glass… He grabbed the buck knife from the kitchen counter and rushed to the bedroom door. Scott flung it open to find the window shattered inward, and Shelly nowhere to be found, he rushed over to the window, looking out, but only fog and darkness greeted him. He looked down, not seeing any blood, which meant she hadn't gone over the glass and out the window.

"Sh-Shelly?" Scott murmured, heading for the bathroom door, opposite the one he'd entered. Scotty's blood was ice cold now, as he couldn't even comprehend an idea of Shelly being dead too now. Glass crunched underfoot as he reached the door and opened it, sticking the knife into his belt to free up his hand. He flung the door wide, but nothing was in the bathroom. He poked his head in, checking the corners, but again, nothing was in sight.

That was when the closet door of the bedroom creaked, and Scotty froze. How had he been so stupid?

The bedroom door in the main room burst open and Ash jumped up, cowering against the wall as Scotty and Shelly came rushing out, Shelly latched onto Scott's back and clawing at his head. Scott spun around, making Shelly lose her grip and topple to the floor, but she slid too far and her head fell right into the roaring fire in the fireplace.

Scott and Ash looked on in horror as Shelly's head ignited like dry leaves, and the smell almost made them vomit, but worst of all… She was still talking.

"NO! No not in the fire! NO!" She screamed, and it sounded like Shelly, but it also sounded like Cheryl, and countless other voices came from her too. Scott couldn't stand it anymore, what if she wasn't like Cheryl? What if she'd just panicked and thought HE was turned too? He ran forward and pulled her from the fireplace quickly.

"Thank you!" Shelly said, suddenly sitting up and touching his arms. The flesh peeled freely from her scolded face, blood and puss ran down from her eyeballs, which were the same blank white that Cheryl's had been. "I don't know what I would have done if I'd remained on those hot coals… Burning my pretty flesh…" She said, her voice warping even more now. "You have pretty skin… GIVE IT TO US!"

She grabbed Scott's face, digging her nails into the sides of his head and clawing, literally trying to rip his face off. Ash rushed forward and shoved her off him, but she shot up to her feet immediately after and back-handed Ash in the face, knocking him into the wall, and into unconsciousness. She then returned her attention to Scotty, dragging him to the fireplace and trying to force HIS head inside. He resisted, so Shelly picked up the dagger from the pile of stuff they'd brought up from the cellar and tried to stab him instead. Scott was fast though, and grabbed her by the wrist, forcing the knife back upward.

Scott knew she was somehow stronger, so he had to act fast, pulling the buck knife from his belt and raising it to the wrist of the hand holding the knife. He began slicing through it like a slab of meat and she screamed in agony as he did. He rammed it harder, feeling the bone crack. She shoved Scotty away and he watched in horror as she looked at her useless appendage, then began chewing it the rest of the way off like a wounded animal. It plopped to the floor in a dead heap, still clutching the knife.

Ash was beginning to come around now, and saw what was happening. He pushed himself up, going for the Axe by the door that Scott had been using to chop wood. Scott couldn't take it anymore though, he grabbed Shelly's hand with the dagger still held in it, and reached around, sticking it right into the small of her back. She let out a loud, long, horrific screeching sound that made both Ash and Scotty's ears hurt. She slowly fell backwards onto the dagger, forcing it deeper and deeper into her body as her weight leaned into it. The tip of the knife emerged from between her breasts and she grabbed it, trying to stop herself, but it didn't work, she fell all the way on top of it, and began thrashing around, spewing multi-colored fluids from her nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and even the stump where her hand had been.

Scott looked on in horror and rejoined Ash by the front door, Ash clutched the Axe to himself like a security blanket. After a moment, Shelly finally fell silent and still on the floor, amidst the horrible puddle of fluids she'd spewed. "Y-You gotta chop her up…" Ash said, remembering Knowby's words and passing the Axe to Scott. "Only way…"

"She's dead already, Ash…" Scott said, not wanting to believe what his friend had just uttered. That is, until he saw Shelly's eyes open again and her hand started to move. Before he even knew what he was doing, he snatched the Axe from Ash and reared it back, screaming in fury and fear as he slammed the Axe down, hacking right through her neck. He brought it back up again and swung, this time taking off her hand, then hitting the shoulder, and so on, until he couldn't lift the Axe for one single swing more. He was panting now, sweat covered his face and he stumbled away from the pile of body parts that had been Shelly. He dropped the Axe and looked down at his hands, seeing blood. No fluids, or strange substances, just her blood…

"What're we gonna do, Scotty?" Ash asked, terrified beyond the possibility of rational thought.

Scott shook his head, not knowing. Then, through the fog of confusion, fear, and exhaustion, a thought came. He wasn't sure why, but it did nonetheless. "We're gonna bury her."

Ash looked at him incredulously, the craziness of it had been enough to tear his eyes away from the sight of Shelly. "We… We can't bury Shelly, she's a friend of ours.""Ash she's dead!" Scotty said, angry at first, but then his shoulders drooped and his tone did too. "Shelly's dead… and we're gonna bury her now."

For a moment neither man said anything, then Ash nodded. "Okay." Was all he could muster, so he and Scott headed to the workshed out back to get some shovels.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

"Abandoned"

It took them almost three hours to gather up Shelly's parts, carry them outside in a sheet from one of the beds, and dig her grave. Finally though, Scott tossed the last pile of dirt onto the heap and Ash stuck the makeshift cross into the head of the pile. They stood there a moment, thinking over what they'd just done, and praying that Shelly could have some kind of peace now.

A few minutes later they trudged back inside the cabin, tossing the axe and shovels into the corner. The cellar door popped open and Cheryl looked out at them, laughing once again. "Not many left now…" She said, then cackled even louder.

Ash rushed to the door and drove his foot down on top of the door, slamming it shut. He could still hear Cheryl laughing down below. 'No, not Cheryl' he thought to himself, 'I cant keep thinking of it as my sister, because its just not her anymore'.

"Daylight isn't coming." Scotty said, looking out the window. "Sun should've at least STARTED coming up by now, but the clock stopped at 2am, and its been at least 5 hours since then… Something is stopping time here."

"How could you possibly know that?" Ash asked, but felt himself worrying that it made sense.

"Look Ash, I'm getting' outta here." He said finally.

"Scotty, Linda cannot walk with her leg like that, she can't even stand up!" Ash insisted.

"Well then we'll leave her here. Until we can send help at least. There's just GOTTA be another way around besides the bridge."

Ash was at a loss for words, could Scott REALLY be suggesting this? "I can't just leave Linda here though."

"Well then you stay with her, I don't care what happens to her, she's your girlfriend YOU take care of her. I'm out." Scott said, not even feeling the need to look away.

"Scott…" As said, trailing off, but his friend didn't trade any more words, he simply picked up the axe, put the flashlight into his backpack, took some food, and left. Ash stood at the door a moment, watching his supposed best friend vanish into the darkness outside, then shut the door once more, looking around the large, empty room. Just as he felt the isolation closing in, the cellar door creaked open a crack, and Cheryl's face came into view.

"One by one we will take you… Soon you'll be ours… AND THEN WE'LL LOCK YOU UP IN A CELLAR!" She screeched, banging the door against the chains and cackling.

"SHUT UP!" Ash said, rushing over to the corner and grabbing the shotgun. He leveled it at the door, but Cheryl didn't retreat. After a moment, Ash's eyes began to tear up. Even though her face was grey, her eyes were blank white, and her teeth were mangled and dripping with those disgusting fluids… He could still see his sister beneath it all. So he lowered the gun.

"Can't bring yourself to do it… That's why you're gonna diiiiiieeeeee!" She cackled and then dropped back down.

Ash let the gun fall from his grip and it clattered to the floor at his feet. He ignored it though, just wanting to be near SOMEONE who was loving to him… So he headed back to the room where Linda was resting. He peered in, but Linda was still out like a light, so he quietly made his way over, lifting the covers and pulling the bandage aside to inspect the wound on her ankle. The bleeding had stopped at least… but before he could even finish his thought of hope, the wound began to pulsate and twist in shape, it turned black and spider web-like patterns began spreading out of it, covering her leg, and following her veins.

Ash's eyes widened in horror and Linda's eyes opened as well. She shot up into a sitting position on the bed and reached her arms out, her fingers hooked into claw-like shapes as she began laughing a fast, high-pitched insanity-filled laugh. Ash was so overwhelmed by the sudden attack that he stumbled away from her and right out the door into the hallway, continuing to back up out the back door of the cabin itself. He stopped just outside the door, realizing what he was doing before he left the range of the back door's light. He stood there a moment, praying she wouldn't come out of the room…

Something lunged at him from the darkness, and Ash screamed, grabbing at it's arms. "Ash! Help me!" Scotty pleaded, coughing up blood. Ash looked at his badly beaten friend in horror and saw that he had branches and sticks protruding from all over his body, he looked like a pin-cushion of sharpened sticks.

Ash quickly shouldered him and carried/dragged Scotty down the hall to the main room of the Cabin, sitting him down on the couch. "Scotty, did you find another route?" Ash asked.

"Ash… Cheryl was right…" Scott said, coughing through his words. "We're all gonna die here… All of us!"

"We're not gonna die." Ash said, shaking Scott to get him to his senses. "We're not gonna die! Now listen, was there another way besides the bridge?" He asked again, and when Scotty didn't answer, he slapped him across the face. "Scotty please answer me!"

"Yes…" He finally mumbled. "There's a trail… but they know. The trees, they know… Don't you see Ash, they're alive!" Cheryl began to laugh hysterically at the pain he was obviously in, and he cried out, clutching a particularly large stick in his gut. "Don't leave me, Ash… You're not gonna leave me, are you Ash?" He begged.

"No, I wont…" Ash said solemnly.

"You're not gonna leave me here are ya? ARE YA ASH!" Cheryl cackled from the cellar, mocking Scotty.

"SHUT UP CHERYL!" Ash screamed.

Then, he head a loud, high-pitched giggling sound behind him, and he slowly turned, his eye twitching from the immense stress he was under. There sat Linda, Indian-style in the doorframe of the hallway door, playing with her hair. Her face was pure white aside from freakishly red cheeks and her lips looked permanently pursed, even as she giggled, and of course she had those blank white eyes like the others.

"Shut up…" Ash said.

"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you…" Linda began to sing-song at him. "Not another peeeep, time to go to sleeeeep."

"Shut up!" He shouted again, then back-handed her across the face, but she just started laughing again, so he screamed incoherent babble at her, unable to even form words, and smacked her again, and again, over and over until his hands hurt.

"Kill her… Kill her!" Scotty mustered the strength to say, pointing at the Shotgun still laying on the floor. Ash grabbed it and breached it open, making sure the two shells were still inside.

"God forgive me Linda…" Ash said quietly, not talking to the thing wearing her face. He raised the shotgun, leveling it at it's face, its cackling, twitching face, which slowly drooped down, it's hair covering the creature. Ash got his breathing under control and prepared to fire… but then Linda raised her head again, and Ash forgot he wasn't thinking of these things as his friends anymore. Her face looked like Linda again.

"Please… Ash don't hurt me…" Linda said, looking completely normal. "I- I don't want to die… You said you loved me."

Ash recoiled in confusion and fear, immediately dropping the gun to the floor yet again. This couldn't be real, could it? Was he willing to find out? Could he bring himself to shoot Linda in the face when she looked… Like Linda?

"Ashley?" Another voice said, from the cellar. Ash turned towards it, his body rigid. "Ashley I'm alright now, let me out of here!" Cheryl pleaded.

"Cheryl?" Ash asked, making his way over and slowly crouching down by the cellar door. He quietly and carefully fished the keys from his pocket and moved towards the lock, but stopped, peering into the darkness between the floor and the cellar door. "Cheryl?" He asked again, then slid the keys back into his pocket.

'CRACK!' a fist came punching up through the floorboard next to the cellar door and Cheryl's hand, still disfigured and rotted, grabbed the side of Ash's face, digging her nails into his cheek. "ASHLEY, Unlock these chains and let me out! I'm alright now, ASHLEY!" She screamed mockingly, cackling again.

Ash twisted her hand, slamming it against the edge of the broken floorboard until she released his face. He shot back up off the floor and felt blood trickling down the side of his face. "You bastards! Why're you torturing me like this? WHY?" He demanded, screaming down at the cellar.

"Hehehehhehehehe" Ash heard from behind him, so he turned around once more, finding that Linda looked exactly the same as she did before when she'd been sitting there the first time. The same blank eyes, and cupie-doll face. She giggled and laughed like a Halloween witch at Ash, who covered his ears, wishing he was dead just so he didn't have to hear that sound anymore.

Finally, Ash couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed her by the feet and dragged her out the front door, kicking it open as he came to it. Ash yanked her down the steps and out onto the dirt. "It's Useless! USELESS!" She screamed, thrashing around and her face morphing into bizarre colors and fluids gushing from her mouth now. "We'll come for him, and then we'll come for you!" She screeched, then as Ash threw her feet down and rushed for the door, she began clawing after him and roaring inhumanly behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

"Lovers Quarrel"

Ash slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. After leaning against the door a moment, he realized that he'd probably just done something stupid… Now he had a Demon in the basement AND outside, but he didn't care anymore… Almost like a robot, he went into the kitchen and filled a glass with water, drinking some of it quickly. He hadn't realized how damn thirsty he was until now… Scotty probably was too. He went back to the main room, with a refilled glass, and sat next to Scott on the couch.

"Here, drink this, Scotty." Ash said, lifting the glass to his friend's face. "You'll need some fluids for strength…" He added, but Scott didn't move, his head was leaned back against the wall behind the couch, his eyes closed. "We'll be getting out of here in a few hours… Wouldn't you like that? To be going home?" Ash asked, refusing to accept what was happening. "I bet you would… You, me, Cheryl, Linda and Shelly… Well…" Ash paused, frowning. "No, not Shelly, she…" He trailed off, looking at his friend again, and at the water just running down the front of his face. "Scott?"

There was no answer, and never would be again.

Ash let the glass slip from his hand, and it fell onto Scott's shirt. He looked away from his dead friend and let his head fall into his palms as he felt like he was going to throw up until he died… But for some reason, he didn't. He got up and paced around the room, and when he passed in front of the hall door, he looked back and saw that the back door was still wide open from when he'd encountered Scott…

Shit.

He spun around to get the Shotgun, but Linda rushed at him from the bedroom door, wielding the ancient dagger in her hand. She slashed downward with it and Ash jumped back just in time to avoid it stabbing him in the face, but it ripped a jagged cut down the side of his arm, and he cried out in pain, kicking her in the chest to knock her away.

Ash cradled the wound and Linda hit the wall by the couch, bouncing Scott forward onto the floor in a heap. Linda giggled and Cheryl pounded the cellar door in a bloodlust as Linda charged again. Ash grabbed Linda's wrists, stopping her from attacking him with the knife, but she still tried to bite his face. Ash wrestled with her, shocked at her strength considering her size. Ash groaned as she pulled her empty hand free to dig into his arm wound, and he spun her around to try and brace himself against the wall, but ended up too near the cellar door. Cheryl's hand shot out, clawing mercilessly down the back of his leg, ripping his pant cuff and the flesh beneath to bloody shreds.

Ash screamed, bringing his knee up into Linda's stomach and then stepped back, stomping down on the cellar door with all his weight, pinning Cheryl's forearm in it. He heard something crack, but he didn't move, driven by a survival instinct now. He charged forward and tackled Linda to the floor, knocking the dagger from her grip in the process, so he reached over and grabbed it. He raised it up and shouted a battle cry like some kind of warrior and plunged the dagger down into her sternum, burying it inside her to the hilt.

Linda's body shuddered violently and Cheryl was still banging the cellar door behind Ash, but he ignored it, keeping the knife in place even as Linda spurted white, red and black liquids from her mouth, splattering them all over Ash's face. He shut his eyes, but held fast until she stopped moving completely. He panted hard, then got to his feet, pulling the dagger out and tossing it aside. He looked back, but found Cheryl had retreated down into the cellar again.

He knew Linda wasn't all the way dead… He'd heard Knowby's tape, he saw what stopped Shelly… He had to finish it.

...

The workshed door swung open, the light bulb flicked on, Linda's body was placed down on the work bench, chains were wrapped across her and tightened. Ash looked down at her a moment, trying to preserve her normal face in his mind as long as possible… Then he reached up and grabbed the Chainsaw from the hooks.

Ash yanked the ripcord and it fired right up. He revved the saw a few times, letting the noise give him some courage as he slowly lowered it towards Linda's body, but just before the whirling chain came in contact with her soft, undamaged flesh, he stopped. The necklace. He saw the necklace he'd given her, still around her neck, and couldn't bring himself to do it. "Oh God, Linda…" Ash said, tears forming in his eyes.

He put the chainsaw back up on the hooks, and fell across her, hugging her a moment, but she was cold, and he felt empty inside. Outside it was cold too, and Ash saw Shelly's grave marker still in place, confirming his hopes that this really did work. He set Linda down on the dirt and picked up the shovel from where he'd stuck it earlier.

...

_The thing in the woods had grown impatient with trying to make the last man go insane, it commanded, and Cheryl's body responded. She started pounding against the cellar door with all her might, grunting with each hit. The thing in the cellar wanted the soul of the last one… and it would have him._

_..._

Ash gave up after only 4 feet… Stepping out of the hole and sticking the shovel back in the dirt. He made his way over to Linda, pausing a moment, wondering if he saw her eyes move… He waited, but decided he'd imagined it, instead picking up the body and placing it in the shallow grave. He then proceeded to shovel the dirt in on top of her, feeling like he was having a hard time breathing from the grief.

...

_Cheryl grunted and groaned louder, like an animal fighting for freedom. She felt the wood around the chain brackets cracking apart now, and the thing in the woods urged her on even more, growling with anticipation._

...

Finally having covered her up, Ash tossed the shovel aside, picking up the sticks he'd made into a cross like on Shelly's grave. Ash looked down at the necklace he'd taken off Linda, placing it in his pocket for safe keeping, and then turned to head inside.

Suddenly, Linda's hand burst up from the grave, snatching Ash's ankle violently. Already torn up by Cheryl from earlier, agonizing pain shot up his entire leg and he cried out, toppling forward and rolling down the hill. When he hit the bottom, his whole body ached, and Ash rolled onto his back, unable to get up. He watched as Linda pulled herself up from the grave, horrific liquid dribbling from her lips and he desperately searched around for something to defend himself with.

Linda giggled, her throat gurgling from the fluids seeping out of her, and leapt into the air, plummeting towards Ash down the hill and screeching like a banshee all the way down. Suddenly, Ash's hands closed around something heavy above and to the right of him, and he swung with all his might. The shovel Scotty had used to bury Shelly was what he'd found, and he felt the tool jerk as the blade hacked through Linda's neck, snapping the bone and sending the head tumbling down the hill, where it landed next to Ash.

Linda's body landed right on him, knocking the wind out of Ash and more of the noxious fluid spurted from Linda's neck hole. Her head cackled next to him and her body grabbed hold, spewing more bile onto him as her hips grinded against him, thrusting over and over. Ash screamed in disgust, feeling like he might vomit, but fought it back, shoving with all his might and throwing Linda's body off him. He dragged the body up the hill, and tossed it back in the grave.

The pain in his ankle was too much for him by this point though, and he stumbled down the hill back towards the cabin.

Inside, the cellar door stood wide open, and Cheryl was nowhere to be found.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Last Man Standing"

Ash stumbled back into the cabin, where his attention was immediately drawn to the cellar door. He swore silently under his breath at the sight of it hanging open and the metal brackets broken. He snatched up the shotgun from where it sat near the front door and checked, seeing that there was still two shells inside. He felt the loneliness close in around him, as if the very feeling was coming to life now… Cutting him off, making him feel like there was no world outside the small cabin.

He had to get the house secured.

Ash raised the shotgun and slowly made his way across the main room, trying to keep quiet in spite of the bad limp he'd developed after his fight with Linda outside. He tilted his head to look through the open pass-through window into the kitchen, but saw nothing. He also checked down the hallway for any movement, but there wasn't anything there either, so he made his way towards the bedroom door to the left of the hallway door.

His hand slowly reached out, his ears perked as he listened for any sound whatsoever, any hint of movement. Silence only greeted him, not a natural silence either, a dead silence, as if someone had pressed the mute button on a remote controlling Ash's life. He gripped the knob and slowly turned it, cringing at the sound of the latch, which in the silence seemed like every little squeak and jolt was deafening. He finally gave up on stealth and yanked the door all the way open, leveling the gun at the room… But it was empty. The next door, leading into the bathroom was ahead and to his right, so he headed towards it, but stopped when he heard movement to his left.

Ash put his back to the wall and leveled the shotgun at the window, which was still broken and open from when Shelly had been taken. He slowly moved closer to the window, hoping he would be able to get the drop on Cheryl first. He felt sick thinking it, but knew that once he put down Cheryl for good, he would be able to find a way out in peace.

As he reached the open window though, he didn't see anything outside. Just the rolling fog moving across the grass illuminated by the small scarlet-colored light coming from the bedroom lamp. Ash kept the shotgun at the ready, peering around the corner of the window frame.

Suddenly, two hands clamped down on the shotgun from below the window, in the shadow of the sill. Ash recoiled and let out a startled scream, jerking the shotgun away from Cheryl, who cackled at him evilly.

Ash clenched his jaw and whipped the shotgun towards his possessed sister, squeezing the trigger. The gun jerked in his hand and let out a deafening "BOOM!" in the small room. Cheryl's shoulder exploded in a shower of blood and bits of bone as she was flung backward into the darkness. Ash rushed forward to finish her off, but arrived at the window just in time to see her stumbling around the corner of the front of the cabin… Towards the front door.

Ash raced out of the bedroom to the main room and quickly slammed the door shut, locking it. He then spotted the back door still ajar and raced all the way down the hallway, kicking it shut and locking it as well. Panting now, Ash frantically rushed back to the main room as the doorknob started to jiggle around. He pressed against the door to brace it as Cheryl's fists pounded violently and she roared like a beast outside. He held fast, and soon, she stopped. Ash paused a moment, trying to get his heart to stop racing, leaning his back against the door just in case she tried breaking in again.

The wood on either side of his head shattered, and Cheryl's fists punched right through the door, closing around his throat. Her hands squeezed and Ash yelped in pain as the airflow was cut off. "Let me go, you bitch!" He chortled out, but she just laughed at him.

"Sorry Ashley, didn't mean to take your breath away!" She guffawed.

Infuriated by her sarcastically stupid pun, Ash growled loudly and pulled as hard as he could forward, hearing Cheryl's head smash against the door as he yanked her arms. Her hands slipped off him and he toppled forward from the sudden release. The Shotgun landed on top of him and he rolled onto his side, taking aim through the holes she'd made. Her face was framed right there, so he squeezed the trigger.

BOOM! The shotgun echoed, and Cheryl's face was blown out of sight, spraying blood against the door in the process.

Ash breached the shotgun, popping both empty shells out and felt his pockets, but found nothing. "Shells…" He said to himself, racking his memory. "Where did I see that box of shells?" Then it came to him, he'd left them downstairs where they'd found the book and the tape recorder. Ash quickly popped the broken cellar door open and descended, aiming the useless shotgun into the dark ahead of him.

A strange feeling of déjà vu came over Ash as he made his way down the stairs and through the main room of the basement. He recalled how only hours ago he'd been down here searching for Scotty, before the world had turned upside-down and dropped him into a land of insanity and horrors. It seemed almost like a world away to him now, as if he'd been in this new world forever…

He felt something liquid drip onto his face, and wiped at it, but paused, catching a glimpse of it in the low light coming down from the cellar door. It was red. He looked up, confused, and saw a pipe above him, sagging somewhat in the center of the length of tubing, and something was wrapped around it. He peered closer, and realized that it was wrapped in some kind of cloth, as though it was bandaged, and the cloth was completely soaked through with the same red substance.

Suddenly, a loud groaning sound echoed through the basement, and the pipe gave way, opening wide and a river of the disgusting liquid poured freely onto Ash's face. He was taken so by surprise that he lost his footing and toppled to the ground on his back. The blood flood continued and he desperately scrambled out from under it, trying futilely to keep it from getting in his mouth or nose.

After he was free from it, he feverishly wiped at his face, trying to get it out of his eyes, and screamed at nobody in sheer disgust and desperation. Then all around him, he heard Linda's sing-song voice again, disembodied, singing that stupid "we're gonna get you" song at him. "Shut up, Linda!" He shouted at the darkness, then got to his feet, limping through the rest of the basement. He suddenly went blind with white light, and held his hands up in front of his face. A moment of panic struck him as strange memories of people on tv talking about out-of-body experiences, and the tunnels of light they saw at death. Was this it? Had he somehow just died and he was going to the other side now?

Alas though, he heard a loud, whirring sound ahead of him, and turned, squinting to find a projection screen behind him. He gritted his teeth and turned back, barely able to spot the old projector ahead of him, and for a moment, was disappointed that he wasn't dead… For if he was, his troubles would have been over now…

As these thoughts crossed his mind, more blood dribbled from the ceiling all around him, onto the projector's lens now, making the light turn red on him. Ash pressed on, finally reaching the door to the office side of the basement. He painfully trotted to the desk, slamming the shotgun down on it and grabbing the box of shotgun shells. Ash popped two fresh shells into the barrels and snapped the gun shut, stuffing the rest of the shells into the breast pockets of his shirt. All-together he counted about 7 shells total, not much.

He turned and hurried out of the room, determined to get out of the basement from Hell. As he passed, the projector, wet from the blood, sparked and exploded, forcing him to shield his eyes as he recoiled from the violent burst of sparks. As the projector died, the basement returned to silence again, and Ash looked around, nothing moved in the dark, nothing tried to kill him. He weakly trudged through the dampness of the blood-soaked dirt flood beneath his feet, climbed the stairs one painful step at a time, and reached the top, looking at the still motionless clock next to his head.

Ash didn't see it, but suddenly, Scotty's body shot up into a sitting position behind him, and it's head slowly turned, the neck bones quietly popping as he turned it all the way around to look at Ash by the cellar door. Scotty got to his feet, the noise of which caught Ash's attention finally. He looked, wide-eyed as his former friend got to his feet, eyes fixed on him, blank white now. Scotty's body turned to face the same direction as his head now, another horrific popping sound of the bones accompanying the turn. Ash moved away from the cellar door, shaking his head angrily at what these horrible things had done to his friend. He raised the shotgun and prepared to fire, when suddenly the front door was hit behind him and swung open wide, smashing into his back.

Ash let out a loud grunting sound and toppled into Scotty, who grabbed Ash by the throat and started to throttle him. Ash gasped for air, pounding on Scott with all his might, but to no avail. The possessed man did not give up, and Ash felt his head swimming as he was starting to pass out. With no other option available to his fading consciousness, Ash reached up, clutched Scotty by the sides of his head, and shoved his thumbs into those blank white eyes that were staring at him. A sickening slippery sensation greeted him as he shoved as hard as he could, and a disgusting bursting sensation followed. Ash felt the contents of the eyeballs squirt out of the sockets, but shut his eyes to avoid the visual as it seeped out onto Scotty's face. Scott let out a scream of pain and released Ash's throat, making him fall to the floor in a heap. Scott fell to the floor a moment later, and clutched blindly at his face. Ash gasped for air, looking around for the fallen shotgun as he caught a glimpse of Cheryl out of the corner of his eye ramming into the table he'd put in front of the door to keep it closed.

With each hit, the table was knocked a little further away from the wall, and Cheryl was getting inside. Ash's vision still swam from the oxygen deprivation, and he saw the table shake violently, and the Book of the Dead, that horrid thing that began it all, flew off the table and next to the fireplace, the roaring flames close enough to singe it a bit. Ash heard Cheryl moan in distress and looked to find that her and Scotty's bodies were smoking now… Ash looked at the book, seeing that it too was smoking from the close proximity to the flames.

Ash quickly pulled himself across the room, an idea forming in his head, if the spirits they'd set free were still bound to the book, then the book must be their connection to this world. If he destroyed it, maybe that would kill the thing once and for all! He reached out to grab the book, but felt a hard, clamping feeling on his ankle, then looked down to find Scotty had blindly grabbed for him and had a firm hold on his ankle. Still on the floor, he pulled Ash backwards to stop him from reaching the book. Ash cried out in desperation and his nails raked painfully across the floorboards to stop himself, but it failed. He did however feel something get caught in his fingers, and looked up to find the necklace he'd given Linda laying on the floor, having fallen out of his pocket apparently.

Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through Ash's whole body, and he cried out, looking up to find Cheryl standing there, brandishing a fire-poker. She giggled in delight at his pain and raised it up, smacking him along the back with it once more. Ash again cried out in pain, and reached for the book again, but Scott held him firmly in place, then began biting into his leg just to add insult and injury to what was ALREADY an injury. Ash screamed in agony, kicking his leg furiously, but the Demon held fast. A desperate plan hit Ash's pain-filled mind and he grabbed the necklace, gripping the chain and tossing the magnifying head out towards the book. The small glass disk bounced off the book, but did not catch. Ash cried out again as the poker smashed his back once more, and he grit his teeth, forcing himself not to pass out from the sheer agony of the attacks on his body, and pulled the amulet back again, tossing it once more. By now though, the Demons must have figured out what he was doing, and began pulling him back away from the book even further. Ash looked down to see that Scott was now on his knees, preparing to lunge at him, and knew he was now well out of the necklace chain's range of the book. He looked away, up towards the book once more, but saw it MUCH closer than he thought. Apparently the second toss had somehow snagged the book JUST barely by the "eyebrow" of the horrific flesh cover, and he'd pulled it WITH him.

Renewed with hope, Ash kicked Scotty in the face, head-butted Cheryl in the stomach, and dove for the book. Ash clutched it in his hand and reared it back, whipping it at the fire with all his might. The book slammed into the burning logs and instantly ignited, the alive-feeling flesh cover went up in flames and the two demons screamed in agony around him as their bodies were engulfed by smoke from beneath their clothes. Suddenly, giant, inhuman hands burst from within the bodies of Ash's former friends, showering him with blood and gore as their mortal forms were ripped to shreds from within. As this happened, the monster hands ignited into flames as well, then receded back inside.

Ash watched in horror as the two bodies began to rot, the flesh peeling away from their bones, and Cheryl toppled to the floor, her skull hitting the floor and shattering, spraying her melting brain all over Ash's face. "Oh GOD NO!" Ash shouted, sobbing horribly as his sister finally died, not moving again.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

"The End?"

Ash awoke, still on the floor where he'd been laying during the fight, his hand clutching the necklace to his chest. He'd been awoken by the sound of a clock ticking and for a brief, brilliant moment, he thought he'd dreamed it all. Then the pain hit him. The aching was terrible in all his muscles, and they promised him more pain to come later. Ash didn't care though, he pushed it out of his head and sat up. Around him, the corpses of his friends had all but dissolved into horrific liquids of varying colors, and he looked away from them in disgust. He got to his feet painfully and limped, blood still wet all over him, dripping as he walked toward the front door. He saw sunlight pouring in from outside and realized with joy that it had worked. The book was destroyed and the Evil Dead's hold on this place was gone. He prayed that this would mean their influence had been undone or something, like how it always happened in the movies… Hoping against hope the bridge would be back to normal.

...

_Off in the woods though, Ash did not hear the stirring. The thing in the woods was in pain, and was not pleased. It stared down at the floor of the forest, a single leaf there. It felt Ash stirring inside the cabin. Having been hurt by the destruction of the book, but by no means defeated, it roared hungrily and zoomed off toward the cabin. The rear door came into view, but it was not challenged, and rammed it. The door blew open, ripping the lock apart as it did, then the inner door that led to the main room shattered to pieces, and the front door came next, breaking open to reveal Ash standing there outside._

_..._

He spun around and screamed as the thing bore down on him and flew straight into his open, screaming mouth.

Everything went black.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

"The Beginning"

Ash woke up screaming. He sat bolt upright in the backseat of his car and looked around, horrified. He felt a hand grab his, and recoiled, shoving his back into the seat behind him, eyes wide. There, ahead of him in the front seat was Linda, with a concerned look on her face. She didn't look possessed at all… She looked normal, and… somehow completely different than in the dream, but he knew it was Linda somehow… Wait, dream… Yes, it had been a dream. All of it had been. Had he made up those other people? Ash looked around the car, but found that the two of them were alone.

"Ash, honey are you alright?" She asked, reaching out and grabbing his hand again. "Sweetheart, you were having a nightmare, it's okay!" She said, touching his face with her other hand.

Ash panted, trying to get his heartbeat to slow. That had been the single most horrific dream he'd EVER had in his entire life… He nodded. "Yeah… Sorry, baby… I'm alright. Just a really intense one."

She smiled and leaned over the top of the seat, kissing him. "Well, don't worry, lover. We're here."

"Where?" Ash asked, scratching his still disoriented head.

Linda laughed, climbing out of the car. "The cabin of course."

Ash froze. The cabin. Now he remembered, they'd taken a vacation from S-Mart and school to come up to a secluded cabin in the woods outside Dearborn. That's where the dream had taken place…

Ash opened the door and climbed out, looking around. He felt his stomach sink as he looked at the cabin for the first time… It looked just like in his dream. Not similar, EXACTLY the same. Ash looked around the dark woods around him, and felt like he'd seen all these trees already too, knew there was a work-shed in the back yard, knew ALL of it already.

Behind him, a scream split the night and Ash spun around, but Linda was gone. "Linda!" Ash called out, but there was no answer. No. Not again. He didn't even think about it, rushing blindly off into the woods to search for her. He couldn't lose her again, not like this… "Linda!" He called out again, but there was only silence in reply. All around him, the trees towered in the darkness, the only source of light coming from those almost floodlight lanterns on top of the cabin's forward leaning roof.

Suddenly though, the silence was shattered as Linda burst up from the bushes into view, right in front of Ash. Her face was pale, her eyes blank white now, and her teeth sharp. He recoiled in fear and toppled backwards into the grass. Linda began to giggle and chortle, stretching out her arms and staggering toward him like a zombie. Ash scrambled backwards, remembering this as if it had just happened. His hand closed around the shovel that just appeared next to him, and Linda leapt through the air. For a moment, Ash didn't know if he could do it again, but his hand moved all on its own it seemed, driven by some powerful force to survive. The head of the shovel hacked right through her flesh and bone, and the head bounced away, rolling down the hill as her body toppled to the dirt.

Ash shoveled the last load of dirt onto the grave and looked down at the necklace that he hadn't even given Linda yet. "Oh Linda…" He mumbled to himself in horror. This felt so familiar… How had he known this would happen? Why wasn't he more surprised that the horrific dream was coming true? Ash headed toward the cabin, unsure why he'd even buried Linda to begin with. Was it just because that's what happened in the dream? He looked back at the cross he'd made from branches, and realized that must have been it. Ash reached the steps of the cabin and looked up at it, frowning. He stepped back, staring at the place like it's windows were eyes, and it stared right back at him. Suddenly, the window-tops angled down and towards one-another, and the step of the porch contorted like a mouth.

"JOIN US!" The cabin demanded.

Suddenly, the front door burst open and Ash felt something coming for him. He screamed in horror and shut his eyes, then felt his feet leave the ground and kept screaming as he rocketed backwards through the woods.

His screaming came to an end when his back struck a tree and he toppled forward, landing head-first in a large puddle of water.

He didn't move.

After a moment, bubbles came up from beneath the water, but then nothing. Suddenly, Ash yanked his head up and cried out, his voice warping and his face contorted like his friends had been when they were possessed. Somewhere inside himself, Ash was still Ash, and he saw all of this as though he were a spectator. His eyes had gone blank white, like the others, and he felt defeat wash over him… It hadn't been a dream at all, waking up had been the dream.

As he succumbed though, the sunlight from the dawn crept up to his fallen form and shone brightly into the Demon's eyes now inhabiting his body. It growled, holding up Ash's hand to shield itself from the rays of sunshine. It growled in pain and then clutched Ash's face, but then Ash felt a hard tug, and had the strange, exhausting sensation of being yanked back into his own tired, beat-up body. His vision went blank white, but only for a moment, as the white swirled away from his vision like water going down a toilet, and he felt free again as the warm sunlight washed over him.

Ash felt like his face was heavy, and his jaw hung open, he gasped for air, and let out a cry of horror as the pain from the injuries he'd sustained the night before washed over him again. The cuts and bruises re-appeared all over his body, and he passed out from the agony.

...

Ed stood at the edge of the landing field where he'd been instructed to park. The airport was small, and he saw the little private plane taxi to a stop. He smiled and waved, hoping that Annie would see him. Ed was a tall man, blonde hair, blue eyes, a master race poster child, and good-looking to boot. He came from a wealthy family, and dressed accordingly, a very fine brand of shirt, off-white in color, with a yellow sweater on his back, sleeves tied around his neck, and of course, khaki pants to complete the look. He was an Associate professor from Michigan State, and had been anxiously waiting for weeks for Annie to call him back.

Annie, who was now stepping off the plane, was not like Ed in many ways… She was average looking. Pretty, but not BEAUTIFUL by the conventional standards. She had big, dark brown hair, and usually dressed for the outdoors, due to her upbringing. Her father Raymond had always taken her on his trips with him. Her mother hadn't been the outdoors type, but always loved the two of them together, so she never minded them being away. She'd learned everything she knew about archeology from her father, who was currently a professor at Michigan State, and had helped her a lot towards getting her own doctorate from the college. She'd met Ed through her father's work of course, as Ed was her father's T.A. throughout most of her schooling. The two had hit it off very well very fast, and Ed had proposed to her just before she left for the dig in England. Annie had told him she needed to think about it, but kept the ring anyway.

As she approached, he smiled at her and rushed forward, hugging her tightly. She kissed him on the lips passionately, and he (as usual) returned the kiss in a sort of mellow way. Ed had never been much for passion, of any sort. The two had slept together already, but Annie found it to be only… satisfactory. Ed's lack of passion was one of the reasons she hadn't said yes to his proposal straight away.

"Annie, how was the trip?"

"Ugh. Long." She said, rolling her eyes, trying to put the thoughts of proposal out of her head. "VERY excited about getting to work though." She said.

"So, what condition are they in?" Ed asked, referring to the item she'd mentioned in her letter.

"Taka a look." She said, holding up the display case to him.

"They haven't aged a day in over 3000 years!" Ed exclaimed.

"Maybe longer." Annie said with a smile. She looked down fondly at her find, and really hoped her father would be impressed. The case contained the missing pages of Necronomicon Ex Mortis, the Book of the Dead.

"So, when do we begin the translations?" Ed asked.

Annie headed over to the car as Ed picked up her suitcase. "Tonight." She said eagerly. "Is everything ready with my father?"

"They should be, but I haven't spoken with him in a week. No phone at the cabin."Annie nodded, remembering those long summer weekends her and her family would spend up at the place. "Yeah, forgot…"

Ed tossed the bags into the trunk of his car as they reached it. "Annie, you hinted in your telegram that you and your father were onto something with the first part of your translations. What has he found in the book of the dead?"

Annie smirked. She had almost forgotten about the initial translations she'd done with him, so excited about the new find she'd put the previous one out of thought till now. "Probably nothing… but just maybe… a doorway to another world." She said.

As the two of them climbed into the car, Annie once again looked down at the ancient pages in the case she'd brought, and wondered just how much of this stuff she really believed in. Her father never had, but after so many years hearing him tell stories of this ancient text… Annie seemed to have developed a certain romanticized, adventurous feeling, WANTING to believe that the book really could commune with the Dead, bring them back to life even… And as the car drove on through the fading light of day, she realized that she obviously believed a lot more than she thought she did.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Screaming at the Dark"

Ash's eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright in the dirt. His gaze drifted around, trying to focus in the fading light of dusk. He had been unconscious for a long time apparently, and his body felt a bit better, but that soon became irrelevant, as Ash realized that it WAS in fact, dusk. He did not want to spend another night here, so he got to his feet, then remembered the possession and looked himself over, searching internally for anything… out of place.

"It's gone…" Ash mumbled to himself, then looked at the horizon through the trees. "Sun must've driven it away." He said, smiling a bit in relief. The relief was short-lived though, as he realized that the sun was indeed still setting. "Better blow outta here before nightfall though."

The tires squealed and the car rocketed forward down the old road that he and his friends had come down the day before, and Ash feverishly wiped the crusty blood and other fluids off himself as he drove. He had no idea what he would tell the authorities… and tried not to think about what he would tell his mother about Cheryl… "Oh God, Cheryl… Linda, Scotty…" He said to himself, trying to keep himself from freaking out. His friends were all dead, and he was going to have to explain all this. Then a thought occurred to him. The dream he'd had, about waking up in the back of the car… Was that reality? Had he just come up here with Linda and the others WERE made up? He racked his brain, but somehow, the answer eluded him… He remembered them all, but he ALSO remembered a life with just Linda…

His thoughts were interrupted though, as he saw the bridge ahead and slammed on the brakes. "Oh no…" He said.

Ash climbed out of the car, staring in disbelief at the structure ahead. "NO!" He shouted, pounding on the roof of the car. The bridge was indeed still destroyed. Ash fell against the car, and remembered himself and Cheryl finding it the night before, and he knew then that it had all been real. He wasn't dreaming, and if he was… Would probably never wake up. That's when the feeling came over him again. He'd felt it a few times last night, but had been too busy to analyze it. A creeping feeling that he needed to run. Fast. He'd felt it this morning too, when the door of the cabin had busted out and he'd been thrown all the way out into the woods… That thing in the woods, the Evil force itself must have been responsible, and he could FEEL it coming now.

The thing in the woods was hungry again. It was furious over the burning of the book, and in it's weakened state, couldn't withstand the sun, but now, as the sun drifted down below the horizon, it knew it could go after the last one again… It roared up the Cliffside towards the wrecked bridge where the Ashley one's car was, calling out for him.

Ash jumped back into the car, slammed it in reverse, and stomped the pedal, looking over his shoulder to drive. The car sped backwards and he knew the thing was getting closer. He had no idea where it was, or if he could even see it if he looked, but he dared not find out. He just sped back towards the only cover he knew of… The Cabin. As much as he didn't want to go back there, he knew that it was his only chance. Ash yanked the wheel to the left and the car spun, sliding on the dirt road sideways a bit, then stopped.

...

_The thing in the woods saw the car screech to a halt, and it zoomed forward with renewed interest, almost right on top of Ashley now._

...

Ash stomped on the gas pedal again, and the car shot forward, back onto the road going forward now. Ash couldn't help himself, and stole a look over his shoulder, night falling FAR too quickly around him to be normal, and he knew that the thing was growing strong again. He peered back, but saw nothing, so he turned back to the road.

Too late.

Ash cried out in surprise and slammed on the brakes. The bumper struck the wood-chopping stump in front of the Cabin and Ash felt himself fly forward, crashing through the windshield. He hit the ground and rolled, dazed, but conscious somehow. Ash got to his feet, feeling like he'd bruised a rib, but miraculously was not hurt.

Ash stumbled towards the door to the cabin, feeling that the thing was still coming for him. He heard the rear window of the car shatter too now and knew it was right on his heels. Ash reached the door, slamming it behind him, but the door broke open once more before he could lock it, and he backed away, not sure what to do, so he ran. He ducked into one of the side rooms and didn't look back, running for all he was worth and slamming doors behind him all the way.

...

_The thing in the woods was furious. It would never have had this much trouble keeping up if the book hadn't been burned, but somehow it felt its strength returning to it as time went on, and it smashed open the doors Ashley had closed in front of it. Finally, it burst through the door into the main room of the cabin, but found it empty._

_The thing looked around, but it simply had lost sight of Ashley. Its unsecured strength failing it now, the thing roared in anger and zoomed back out into the woods, leaving the cabin behind._

...

Inside the cabin, all was quiet now. The furniture was unmoving, the forest outside was still silent as before, and the clock once again stopped ticking even. Then, a creaking sound split the silence, and the cellar door slowly lifted. Ash, shaking like a leaf, peered out to find the room empty, but also felt alone once more, the thing in the woods was gone.

He climbed out cautiously, making his way to the door and shutting it, locking the latch once more.

...

A few miles away, Ed's car pulled up the long, lonely road to the cabin, but stopped at the sight of a pickup truck parked in the middle of the road ahead. He frowned and got out, Annie close behind. They approached the truck and saw the driver in front of it, setting up a roadblock with a blinking light on top.

"Excuse me." Annie said, and the man turned to look at her. He was a heavy-set man, sweaty with disheveled hair. He wore a white tee shirt covered in grease stains, and a pair of blue overalls as well. A set of army dog-tags hung from his neck.

Jake was a lazy man by nature, he'd just been raised that way. One would think that his time in the military would have fixed this, and he loved talking about his time in "the war", but the fact is, Jake had never been in the military. The tags he wore were his grandfather's from World War II, and he just wore them to pick up girls at the bar. He hated city folk, as they were the ones who called him out on his story most of all…

"Excuse me." Annie repeated, and Jake simply popped a cigarette into his mouth, nodding to her. "Is this the road to the Knowby Cabin?" She asked.

Jake nodded again. "That's right, but you aint goin' there." He said, his thick southern accent shining through.

Annie frowned, crossing her arms. "And why not?"

Jake just smirked, and reached through the window of his truck, flipping on the headlights. The beams split through the dark ahead, illuminating the trashed remains of the bridge.

"Good God…" Ed said, amazed.

"There's gotta be another way in." Annie said, looking to Jake for an answer. "There's gotta be a road or something, right?"

Jake looked as though he was about to blow her off, but a voice from behind the group caught their attention. "Sure ain't no road…"

The group turned and saw a woman now leaning against the truck, chewing tobacco. She spit and leaned back again. "What the hell you wanna go up there for anyway?" She was an attractive woman, but wore FAR too much makeup for her own good, with overly loud eye-shadow, bright lipstick, and blush that made it look like someone had taken pliers to her cheeks.

Annie immediately hated her. She placed her hands on her hips, shooting her a look. "None of your business."

The woman looked thrown that someone hadn't just immediately answered her question, and looked as though she wanted to hit Annie already.

Fearing a fight, Jake quickly stepped in. "Hey, I just remembered!" He said, nervously chuckling, exposing several missing teeth in the front of his mouth. "Yeah, that's right, there is a trail. You could follow Bobby-Jo and me."

"Sounds alright to me." Ed said, looking from Annie to the others.

"It'll cost ya though…" Jake mumbled.

Annie sighed. "How much?" she asked spitefully. These dumb hicks were starting to piss her off now.

"Forty-five-" Jake started, but halted as his girl elbowed him. "Uh… Hundred buck." he finished.

Annie thought it over, and an idea occurred to her. She glanced back at the car, motioning to it with her head. "Tell you what, you take my bags and you got a deal."

Jake moved to the car and peered inside, seeing Annie's carry-on bag and the display case with the pages inside, but obviously did NOT see the large crate of clothes Ed had put in the trunk earlier. He chuckled. "Sure!" He said enthused.

Annie and Ed both chuckled as well, knowing what he'd just agreed to.

...

Ash jerked in the rocking chair, awoken by something he couldn't remember. He looked around the main room of the cabin and relaxed a bit, seeing he was still alone. It had been hours since he'd eluded the thing in the woods, and he'd used that time to crudely patch up the doors to secure his stronghold. He'd also used the kitchen table to board up the windows of the main room, even going so far as to fix the cellar door so that he could keep it closed, the memories of Cheryl tormenting him from within too fresh in his mind to stand it sitting open.

Ash couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had woken him up though, so he got to his feet, peering out the front, right-side window of the house, searching for any movement in the trees. Nothing was there though. He was about to look away, when he saw the cross on Linda's gravesite tip over. Ash watched in horror as a hand burst up from the ground, and Linda's headless corpse followed soon after. He hadn't been able to bring himself to finish her off, so she was returning yet again to torment him… Linda's head came rolling up the hill next to the graves, and her body bent at the hips, dipping down and allowing the head to latch onto the neck stump. She then waved to Ash, giggling and she began to dance, twirling and moving between the trees in a macabre beauty. Ash felt his heart sink as he watched this, for Linda's body was now back to the way she'd looked when she was alive, and her clothing was tatters of cloth draped across her naked form. Then, Shelly's grave stirred, and her hacked-up parts rose into the air, re-assembling as well. Ash blinked, and in that short time, Shelly was back together, looking alive as well, smiling at him as she joined Linda's dance.

The two women touched, watching Ash as they did so, clearly trying to illicit a reaction. They giggled the same, eerie, echoing laugh as they danced with one-another, their bodies rubbing together. Eventually, the dancing façade ended, and they simply began to touch one-another all over. Ash's first impulse was, of course, to watch, but then their bodies began to whither, wrinkle, and rot back to the way the demons had made them. Ash looked away, biting his lip. After a moment, he looked back, and Shelly's corpse glanced over her shoulder at him, grinning a rotten-toothed smile before kissing Linda, then crumbling back into her hacked-up form. The pieces of Shelly slid back beneath the dirt, and Linda looked at Ash, her body now gray, rotten and withered like the corpse she was. All aside from her head, which looked exactly the same as it did in life.

After a moment, she leapt off the top of the hill and vanished into the trees, an echoing laugh lingering in the air, then the woods returned to silence. Ash leaned closer to the boards, peering between them to give himself a wider range of sight. Suddenly, Linda popped up right in front of the window and snarled at him, her eyes blank white and her teeth sharp like a shark. "DANCE WITH ME!" She snarled.

She began giggling again and reached through the boards, grabbing Ash by the sides of the head. She yanked him hard, smashing his face against the boards painfully. Ash grabbed at her hands, wrenching them off him and backing away from the window, screaming in terror as her head simply rolled off her neck, blood shooting up from it like a fountain.

Ash's eyes opened and he screamed in terror uncontrollably in the rocking chair, his hands clutching the arms of it in a death-grip. He panted, feeling the cold sweat beading down his brow, and his head shot towards the boards on the window he'd dreamed of standing next to, but saw nothing there now. None of it had happened, the Demons were just trying to screw with his mind again. "Just a dream ya idiot…" He mumbled to himself. "You're fine… It's alright…"

Something plummeted from the roof and landed right in Ash's lap. He looked down, screaming again when he saw what it was. Linda's head looked up and smiled inhumanly wide with those shark teeth again. "Hello lover." She said, then chomped down onto his hand. Ash screamed and jumped up from the chair, swinging his arm wildly, smashing the head against the nearby fireplace mantle. Linda refused to release him though, and Ash fell to his knees, grabbing her head by the hair in agony. Suddenly, through the pain, a plan formed in his mind. "Workshed!" He exclaimed.

Outside, the door of the workshed burst open and Ash stormed in, feeling out the work bench with his free hand in the dark. The pain was agonizing, and blood was now running down his right arm freely as he finally located the vice he'd been looking for. He shoved Linda's head into the clamp, and spun the tightening handle, then ripped his hand free, taking a few teeth with it. Linda spit blood and variously colored fluids, giggling at him as he hit the light to see what he was doing easier. "Even now we have your darling Linda's soul! She suffers in TORMENT!"

Ash glared down at this thing before him that had stolen Linda's face… Had taken her away from him. The thing in the woods didn't have a body, didn't have something for him to shoot, stab or chop up… This thing here though… This thing he could hurt. "You're going down!" He shouted, reaching up for the chainsaw, but found nothing. "Chainsaw…" Ash mumbled, looking around for where he'd left it.

The door to the shed burst open again and a loud revving of an engine split through the silence of the space. The chainsaw fired up and Linda's headless corpse lunged at him, brandishing the saw out in front of it. Ash recoiled in fear, desperately grabbing the first sturdy thing he could, a crowbar. He held it up in front of him and the saw's spinning blade connected, sending sparks flying as Ash shoved the blade back. Linda's body was thrown off balance and Ash struck before it had time to react. The chainsaw, heavy in Linda's body's weakened arms, fell back towards the body and the whirling chain sunk right into the neck hole, ripping down into her midsection, spraying Ash with blood and bits of gore. He groaned and tackled the body to the ground, grabbing the saw and gaining control of it to finish the job and chop Linda's body to pieces.

After a moment of catching his breath, he turned off the chainsaw and yanked it from Linda's hands, standing up and looking down at her head, still alive on the vice. Now though, it looked like Linda again, and was crying. Ash backed away, not in surprise though, as he was used to their tricks… But he just couldn't take looking at her any more. "Please Ash, please don't hurt me. You swore we'd always be together! I love you!"

"I… I love you too, Linda." Ash said, then yanked on the Chainsaw's rip-chord to start it up.

Linda's face contorted and reverted to the Demon's face again, knowing it wasn't going to be able to trick him. "Your lover is mine… and now she burns in HELL!" It screamed at him.

With renewed anger, Ash furrowed his brow, clenched his jaw. "Alright, that's how you wanna play it? OKAY!" He screamed at it. He revved the saw up full-blast and rammed the tip of the blade into the Demon's face, refusing to look away as the blade ripped violently into the head, shattering bone and spraying bits of flesh and brain all over the workshed, a torrent of blood and Demon bile spraying so thick it hit the single naked light bulb and colored everything in the shed in a red filter.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Misery Loves Company"

A few minutes after the scene of carnage, Ash stumbled out of the shed door. He'd wiped off the light to aid in the cleanup a bit, but had mostly just tossed the body parts out. The chainsaw hung loosely in his grip and he looked down at the blood all over his shirt and was overcome with a strange, sickening sense of calm now that he knew Linda was gone for good. He'd been grieving for her loss all along, but now he wouldn't have to worry about seeing her again…

Ash shut the door behind him and latched it, then stumbled down the incline to the back door of the cabin, opening it and going inside. He latched the door, locked it behind him and leaned against it, catching his breath. After a moment, he slowly made his way back toward the main room and half-heartedly tossed the saw to the floor of the kitchen. He reached the main room, looking around and finding a towel on the counter, which he used to dab off as much of the blood as he could, then tossed the towel aside. He grabbed the discarded Shotgun from the floor and turned to the rocking chair once more to come up with a plan, but froze as the chair turned toward him.

Ash checked to make sure the gun was loaded, it was, and he leveled it at the chair, just in case. He wasn't about to take ANY chances at this point… Too much weird shit had happened. The chair began to rock slowly, and let out a loud creaking sound with each movement, as though someone was sitting in it. Ash felt his heartbeat get faster, how could the chair have someone in it? He found himself asking. Was it, an invisible person? Demon? Thing!

Ash slowly let go of the shotgun with one hand, reaching out toward the chair. Just short of him touching it though, it suddenly stopped moving altogether. Ash stopped as well, and realized that he might've been imagining it moving from the start… He backed up, letting the shotgun drop to the floor again and rubbing his head, thinking hard. Was the chair actually moving? He moved over to the corner to the left of the front door, placing his hands against the wall on either side of the head-level mirror hanging there. He stared at himself, at the bags under his eyes, the pale complexion he'd developed from all the horror he'd been through over the course of… "God how long have I been here?" a voice asked. Was that his voice?

Ash took a deep breath, looking at his own mouth as he spoke into the mirror. "Get a grip man, you're fine… Everything is… Fine." He said, nodding. That is, Ash nodded. His reflection didn't though.

The mirror Ash suddenly lunged forward, grabbing Ash by the shoulders as it came right THROUGH the mirror as though it wasn't even solid. Ash was frozen in fear as this reflection of himself stared at him, wide-eyed. "I don't think so." It said. "We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw… Does that sound… FINE?" It asked him, then clutched him by the throat and began making laughing sounds, in spite of the fact that it wasn't smiling in any way. The laughter echoed in Ash's mind as the hands clutched his neck, choking him and Ash shut his eyes tightly, then stepped back, but the hands stayed firmly around his neck. He opened his eyes and saw his reflection back inside the mirror, and he also saw his OWN hands around his OWN throat. Ash released himself and looked down. "What the hell?" He asked nobody, looking at his hands intently.

The bite marks on his right hand looked like they might be getting infected somehow, and Ash wondered a moment if he would turn into a zombie or something, but pushed that out of his mind, that's how it happened in movies… This was… Well, he had no idea if this was reality anymore…

Suddenly, the veins around his hand began to show through his skin, and his right hand trembled a bit as the veins turned black. He gasped, and cringed at the pain accompanying the activity. The hand raised up in front of his face, and Ash was confused, as he felt like he wasn't telling the hand to do that… Then suddenly it began jerking back and forth, and his fingernails, to Ash's horror, grew longer, and green, with blackness forming in his cuticles.

Ash didn't know what to do, but didn't have long to think about it, as the hand suddenly shot forward into his face, digging the nails into his skin. "AH!" Ash screamed, grabbing his wrist with his left hand and yanking it away. It lunged again, but Ash held it fast. "You bastards…" He said, almost in disbelief. "You dirty bastards!" He shouted, falling to his knees. He watched as his own hand jerked and struggled against his grip, trying to get at him, so he slammed it to the ground, which seemed to stun it. Tears formed in his eyes, he was alone, in the middle of nowhere, with nobody to help him… and now his own body was turning against him. "Give me back my hand…" He choked out, then rage replaced terror and he furrowed his brow, growling. "GIVE ME BACK MY HAAAAAAAND!" He called out.

The hand continued to thrash around though, seeming to get stronger as time went on. Not knowing what to do, Ash got up, rushing to the sink in the kitchen, running cold water over it. He had no idea, but the horror he was experiencing had driven him to child-like reaction, doing as his mother had always told him to do with injuries when he was a boy. Ash left the hand in the running water, which actually seemed to do the trick, as it went limp. He couldn't move it, but it didn't move on its own either… So it was a start.

Ash leaned against the sink, his head resting on his left forearm as he tried to come up with a plan. How could he make it out of this if he couldn't even stop the Evil from infecting his body parts? What part would they take next? That thought terrified him too much to allow it to enter his mind any more than that though… Maybe he could take the gun and the saw and try the old trail again-

SMASH!

Ash's world swam with spots and colors, he stumbled backwards, using his left hand to catch himself before he fell. He saw bits of a glass plate from dinner topple to the floor at his feet, and looked over just in time to see his hand flying at him with another plate. He shut his eyes just as the plate collided with his head like the first and he cried out in pain, feeling blood trickle down his face from the first strike. He caught himself again and blocked the next strike out of sheer instinct, making the plate fall from his right hand's grip and shatter on the floor. The hand instead shot to his hair and yanked his head down into the counter top so hard he felt one of the back teeth on his left cheek crack. He tried to move away from the counter, completely stunned by the ferocity of the attack, but the hand slammed into his stomach, doubling him over, then smashed him in the jaw in an upper-cut.

Ash tried to fight back, but the hand grabbed is hair again and flipped him head-over-heels to the floor, on his back. The pain was horrible, and then a bottle shattered over his cranium, knocking his lights out completely.

...

_The thing in the woods was now the thing in Ashley's hand. It giggled to itself, amused at it's own amazing idea as it reached for the remains of the fallen plate on the floor, but stopped as it spotted something better…_

_During the scuffle, the knife drawer had apparently been thrown open, and a meat cleaver had been knocked onto the floor. It lay a few feet from Ashley's unconscious form, on the other side of the kitchen, by the hallway. The hand skittered as far as it could get, but Ashley's reach wasn't long enough. The hand went to work though, digging it's nails into the floor and pulling with all the force it could muster. Ashley's body slid forward, dragging him along on his belly. Inch by inch the meat cleaver drew closer, and the thing in the woods' blood-lust grew. It still didn't know why this one had been impossible to possess permanently, but in a moment, it wouldn't even matter-_

_Excruciating pain shot through the hand, and the thing in the woods felt it. The butcher's knife was stuck fast into the floorboard of the kitchen, and Ash's left hand clutched it.__  
><em>_  
>...<em>

Ash's whole body shook with the pain, but he fought through it, his voice trembling as he spoke. "Uh huh… That's right… Who's laughing now?" He asked. His gaze drifted and, in his crazed, pain-soaked brain's state, he saw the Chainsaw on the floor of the kitchen, and it was his salvation. He let go of the knife, leaving his right hand pinned to the floor by it, and ignored the agony as the hand violently tried to rip itself free. He turned the saw over and latched onto the rip-chord grip with his teeth, squeezing the trigger of the saw, hoping it wasn't too cooled down. He yanked his head back and the saw fired up like a miracle. He let go of the chord, looking down at the hand and glared.

"Who's laughing now!" He demanded again, knowing that the thing in the woods was listening. He revved the saw up full-blast and lowered it onto his wrist, screaming in unbelievable agony as the whirling steel chain tore into his skin and bit through the bone underneath. Blood hit him in the face and he screamed even louder, almost in a battle cry at this point as he finished the job and the hand was ripped free.

Somehow, even through the pain of the self-surgical removal of his hand, Ash didn't pass out, and as soon as the hand had been taken off, the pain had actually LESSENED. As though the Evil had become so entrenched into the flesh of that limb, that it hadn't even been part of him anymore. Ash had gotten to his feet and turned on the clothing iron before finding a trash can and placing it over the hand. "Here's your new home." He said bitterly. To make sure it didn't get out, he reached into the bookshelf built into the desk by the kitchen hallway door and grabbed a random stack of books. He placed them on top of the trash can, and couldn't help but stare at the top book. 'A Farewell to Arms' was the title that looked up at him. He shook his head and got to work fixing himself up.

Oddly enough, by the time Ash got his stump wrapped up, there was little to no bleeding from the wound, and it reinforced Ash's notion that the possession of his hand had somehow turned it into an autonomous creature, and his arm now just ended at his wrist… It still hurt like a bitch though. He wrapped it in a dry, clean cloth and wrapped the cloth in duct tape just in case, praying he didn't die of some kind of infection after all this. He heard a tapping sound behind him in the main room of the cabin and went out to investigate, seeing the trash can still in place, so he turned to go back to the kitchen.

CRASH! CLUNK!

Ash spun around and the trash can was laying overturned in the corner, the hand nowhere to be seen. He picked up the Shotgun, knowing the thing was still dangerous even if it wasn't attached anymore. Ash listened intently, and then spotted it scrambling across the floor towards a small hole in the base of the wall. Ash took aim, but it was gone before he could fire. He swore to himself and raised the gun again, moving closer to the wall, listening intently for any sound of the hand. He heard a scraping sound, like nails, as it probably climbed the inside of the wall. He pinpointed it best he could, firing off both shells in the general vicinity. After the deafening 'BOOM! BOOM!' of both barrels, there was silence again.

Ash listened, but no more sounds greeted him. A thin trickle of blood did seep from one of the shell holes though. "Gotcha didn't I, ya little sucker?" He mumbled. Just as he was about to turn away though, the trickle turned into a spray, and a fire-hose blast of blood began to shoot out of the shotgun holes, knocking Ash right off his feet. He felt it fill up his mouth and spit it out furiously as he tried to regain his footing, but failed. He felt the entire cabin begin to fill up with blood like a fish tank and his head hit the ceiling as he tried to go up for air.

Suddenly, the cabin was empty, and all was back to the way it was before, aside from Ash still being soaked in blood, and black goop that had shot out at him. Nothing else was touched by it though. He was furious, the Evil was screwing with his mind, and he was getting sick of it. "Show yourselves! Ole double barrel here'll blow your balls to kingdom come!" He shouted, but nothing answered. Ash panted a bit, then moved over towards the chair. "See if we don't…" He trailed off, then sat down in the chair, which fell apart under his weight. He toppled to the floor and considered just laying there, until he heard a crackling sound from the wall above the fireplace.

Ash's gaze shot towards the source of the sound, finding the deer head was now looking right at him, the eyes were larger, and blank white though. "HAH!" It guffawed, and began to bellow out a loud, raucous chorus of laughter at him. He blinked quickly several times, but the deer head was indeed laughing at him…

Then a higher pitched laugh joined the Deer, and Ash saw it was the bookshelf doors, flapping open and closed quickly as laughter emanated from it too. He backed away, leaning his back against the front door, but the goose-neck lamp on the side table, next to where the rocking chair had been sitting, began bobbing up and down and laughing a loud, wheezing, cruel laugh as well. Ash turned away from it, trying to ignore it all and wait it out, but it was too much, and soon, every single piece of furniture in the cabin was laughing at him.

The noise was deafening, and Ash stood in the center of the room, clutching the Shotgun in his one remaining hand, turning and looking at each of the laughing things, then he heard another laugh, loud and booming and full of cruel humor too. It took him a moment to realize he was the one that had started to laugh last, and he guffawed in such an over-the-top manner that he couldn't help but double-over from the intensity of it. He didn't know why he found this so funny, but his mind was so far-gone that he couldn't stop to figure it out now. Then slowly, as this realization dawned on him, his laughter grew more long-winded and less reverberated, until finally, he was merely letting out desperate, terrified screams, and he was now the only thing in the room making noise. He looked at the furniture, still screaming and daring anything else to even MOVE.

The doorknob jiggled.

Ash spun toward the front door and let loose with both barrels of the shotgun, punching through the boards he'd used to repair the door earlier. He heard a woman scream on the other side of the door and froze.

Who was that?

Ash breached the shotgun quickly, popping both shells out, and rapidly reloaded, snapping it shut once more. No sound clued him as to what was out there, so he slowly approached the door, unlocked it, and pushed it open. The wind and sounds of the forest outside greeted him, and for the first time… the forest looked… Normal to him. In spite of his blood-soaked, one-handed state, aside from the chaos that the interior of the cabin looked like… Everything outside seemed normal.

A figure darted in, pushed the shotgun upward, and tackled him to the floor. Ash instantly went back to fight mode, punching wildly with his left hand at his attacker, but another man joined him and held Ash's arms down over his head. Ash screamed and pleaded up at the hillbilly-looking man on top of him, but didn't have long to wonder what was happening, as a fist flew at his face and once more, Ash was greeted by darkness, and it seemed as though they were old friends by this point.

Annie stormed into the cabin as Ed gave the all-clear. She saw Jake and Ed pulling a third man toward the cellar door, he was raggedy looking, missing a hand, and covered in blood. "Oh my God… Where are my parents!" She shouted, then ran inside, looking in the kitchen and peering into the side bedroom. The window was shattered, and there were clothes and suitcases next to the closet, but no sign of her mother and father's things. There was blood though, all over the place. Splattered against the walls, on the floor, everywhere were signs of violence. Annie re-entered the main room and saw Jake tending to Bobby-Joe's injured shoulder, where part of the buckshot had winged her.

Annie saw the shotgun, and then she saw the chainsaw… Drenched in blood as well. She rushed over to the unconscious man and grabbed him violently by the shirt collar. "What the hell did you do to them? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO THEM!" She demanded, shaking him hard. He opened his eyes, but it was clear that he was still out of it. Ed came over and pulled her away, hugging her as she began to cry.

"Annie, calm down…" He said, patting her on the back. "Maybe they never came here at all. None of the stuff in those suitcases are even their things."

"But these are!" She said, pointing to the ceremonial dagger and tape recorder sitting on the desk by the kitchen counter window.

The man on the floor began to stir more now, and Jake knew he was coming around. "I'm throwin' him in there." He said angrily, getting to his feet. Ed went over to the cellar door, where Jake was pointing, and lifted it up.

"Wait… Wait. I made a mistake." The stranger said pleadingly as he tried to regain consciousness. "Wait, don't put me down there… Cheryl…" He mumbled.

Jake yanked him by his arm all the way over to the door, and the stranger stopped himself at the edge, looking up. "Wait! I made a mistake!" He said again.

"Damn right you did, you flat-mouthed sumbitch!" He shouted, then kicked the man in the face, sending him tumbling down the stairs to the floor of the cellar.

"I hope you rot down there!" Bobby-Joe shouted, clutching her wounded arm.

Annie ignored them all, flipping the play button on the tape recorder. The spools began to turn and she listened as her father's voice came through the speaker. "It has been a few hours since I've translated and spoken aloud the first of the demon resurrection passages from the Book of the Dead, it is now October first…"

"Listen." Annie said to the others. "This is my father's voice." The last time she'd spoken with her father was Thanksgiving last year over the phone, when she'd still been overseas. He told her he was planning to come up to the cabin for a few months to catch up on his work with the book… But Ed had spoken to him on the phone a week ago, hadn't he?

"Now I fear that my wife has become host to a Candaarian Demon." Knowby's voice said, trembling as he spoke. "It is now October Third… Henrietta is… Dead." He said.

"No…" Annie said, her hand covering her mouth in horror.

Ash lay at the bottom of the steps to the cellar, staring up at the ceiling. He could see the newcomers moving around upstairs through the hole Cheryl had punched through earlier. He'd heard the yuppie guy call the dark haired one Annie, and remembered the name from Knowby's tapes, that must have been why she was so steamed at him. He lay there though, taking deep breaths to get his senses about him, and tried to figure out what to do. If they got possessed like the others, he'd have one hell of a fight on his hands…

"I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse." Knowby's voice continued reluctantly. "So I dragged her down the steps and I buried her." Ash's ears perked up at that, and he looked around. "I buried her in the cellar." Knowby confirmed. "God help me, I buried her in the Earthen floor of the fruit cellar…"

Ash's eyes darted to the pile of dirt clumped over near the wall and realized with horror what it had been this whole time. Suddenly, the head of an old woman burst up from the dirt pile, worms wriggling out of two holes in her head. Ash screamed and scrambled up the stairs as Henrietta howled inhumanly at him in response, clawing her way up from the hole.

"Someone's in my fruit cellar…" She said, stepping up onto the solid ground. "Someone with a fresh soul!"

Ash pounded up against the cellar door, but the chains prevented him from opening it any more than Cheryl had been able to. "Help! Lemme out, there's something down here!" He screamed.

"Let him out!" Annie ordered Jake.

"It's a trick, I know it!" Jake said, obviously having heard the noise of Henrietta below, but unable to accept it.

"LET HIM OUT!" Annie shouted, more urgently.

"Open the door!" Ash shouted again, looking down.

Below him, the portly, bloated, rotten form of Henrietta approached the steps. Most of her clothing was rotted away, exposing the horrid remains of her body below, and none of it appeared human. She was mostly sickly green, purple and gray colored now, and her eyes were the trademark white that the Demons had shown up till now. "Come to me…" She said, wiggling her finger at Ash in delight. "Come to sweet Henrietta!" She said in a sensual voice, in spite of it being warped by the possessing spirit.

"HELP ME PLEASE!" Ash begged, slamming the door again.

Henrietta climbed the first few steps, looking up at him. "I'll swallow your soul!" She shouted, then her face contorted even more than it already was, and her neck shot out, stretching and bringing her head toward him, the mouth splitting her cheeks and opening wide to devour him.

Ash screamed as two strong hands suddenly clamped down around his head, pulling him upward. He grabbed hold of Jake's arms and was pulled to safety just in time. An instant later, Henrietta's pin-head popped up from below, snarling and spitting horrid Demon bile everywhere. Ash kicked at it and it was knocked back down a bit, but Ed tried to punch at the Demon, and received a strong hand to the face for his troubles. The Demon squeezed his face, clawing him a bit, then shoved him so hard he flew clear across the room and hit his head on the wall, cracking the plaster.

Bobby-Joe screamed in horror at the sight of the creature, backing away and hiding behind Annie, who just stared wide-eyed. This was a Candaarian Demon… Just like in the paintings…

Ash kicked the cellar door shut on Henrietta's head, and it was caught between the door and the edge of the floor. Ash jumped on top of it and one of Henrietta's eyes burst from the socket, flying out and hitting Bobby-Joe in the face, causing her to scream louder and swipe at herself in disgust. Jake finally kicked Henrietta in the face, sending her toppling back down the steps and allowing the door to shut fully. He and Ash quickly put all their weight on the door and the two of them worked quickly, locking it with the chains once again.

For a time, nobody spoke. Annie helped Ed up and sat him down on the couch, pressing her scarf to his head where it was now bleeding. Jake clutched Bobby-Joe to him as she sobbed in fear, and Ash just stood there, unsure of what to do. "So, name's Ash…" He said with a small wave. "Nice to meet ya."


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Dead By Dawn"

Ash tossed another log onto the fire, which he and Jake had finished re-lighting by the time he finished his explanation of what happened. "There's something out there, still…" He continued, looking at the others. Though he was helping, Jake remained skeptical the entire time, in spite of what he'd just witnessed. Bobby-Joe remained in a constant state of panic, being the weakest one of the bunch mentally, which caused Ash to worry about her chances of withstanding Demonic Possession. "That witch in the cellar is only part of it." Ash said. "It lives out in those woods, I think it always has. It's something that was brought back from the dead… and it wants to kill every single one of us."

"Jake please, can we just get outta here!" Bobby-Joe begged. Annie looked at her annoyed, and continued to bandage Ed's forehead. He'd been out of it most of the explanation, and she was actually beginning to get fed up with him. After all, Ed hadn't taken that hard of a hit, and she suspected that he might just be milking his injury so he didn't have to help. Not to mention that this guy Ash, whoever he was, seemed much more up to speed, and had to be something special if he was to be believed, and survived everything he'd told them sofar.

"Look nobody goes out that door, not until daylight!" Ash ordered.

"You listen to ME!" Jake said, grabbing Ash by his collar. The two looked as though they were about to fight, but a soft, singing voice interrupted everyone.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word,

Mamma's gonna buy you a mocking bird.

And if that mocking bird don't sing,

Mamma's gonna buy you a diamond ring." The voice sang.

Ash looked, seeing Annie's reaction, and knew EXACTLY what was about to happen…

"Remember that song, Annie?" Henrietta asked from inside the cellar door. She now looked exactly as she did the last time Annie had seen her, and Annie smiled, relieved to see her alright. "I used to sing it to you when you were a baby."

"Mother…" Annie said.

"Unlock these chains, quickly!" Henrietta begged.

Annie, so overcome with what she was seeing, instinctively took a step towards the cellar, but Ash grabbed her by the arm. She looked up at him, angrily at first, but saw that haunted look in his eyes… This had happened to him already. She looked down at the cellar again, right at her mother, whom she loved with every fiber of her being, and shook her head. "No…"

Henrietta's eyes welled up with tears. "You were born September Second. I remember everything about that night so well, because it was snowing." She said. "So strange, it would be snowing in September."

Annie shut her eyes, turning away. "That thing in the cellar is NOT my mother!" She declared, looking at the others.

Suddenly, Ed shot up from the couch and roared a loud, inhuman roar, his entire head stretching vertically and his mouth widening into a massive, tooth-filled maw. He wagged his tongue at Annie, who recoiled in horror and jumped back. Bobby-Joe let out a scream and Jake pushed her behind him defensively. Ed floated up off the floor, his legs kicking out with glee as multiple voices bellowed from his throat, his lips and jaw not moving with it though, as if the voices were shouting from deep inside him somewhere.

"We are the things that were, and shall be again!" The voices said, giggling and chortling. "We want what is your's… LIFE! Dead by dawn, DEAD BY DAWN!" It screamed, then Henrietta began pounding up against the cellar door, chanting along with the chorus of "Dead by dawn!"

Suddenly, Ed floated across the room, his fingers wiggling at Bobby-Joe and he shoved Jake aside as he passed, then locked his jaws onto a clump of Bobby-Joe's hair. Ed then yanked a tuff of it right off her head in his teeth, she screamed, clutching her head in pain as Ed proceeded to swallow her hair like Spaghetti.

"You sonovabitch!" Jake shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder. Before he could do anything though, Ed's head spun around 180 degrees and his body followed suit a moment later. He knocked Jake's hand off his shoulder, then grabbed him by the face and flung him straight up into the roof, where he was knocked unconscious by the rafter above. He returned his attention to Bobby-Joe once more, after Jake fell.

In the corner, Annie cowered behind Ash, who was frozen in place, until suddenly in a burst of speed… He ran from the room. "Where are you going?" Annie demanded. "Help us, you fucking coward!"

Bobby-Joe backed up against the fireplace wall of the main room of the cabin, Jake shook his head, trying to jerk himself back to consciousness.

Henrietta, back in her Demonic form, banged on the cellar door. "Set me free!" She demanded.

Ed made his way toward her, grabbing hold of the chains, but before he could do anything more, the door to the main hallway burst open and Ash stood there with the axe. Ed spun toward him and snarled.

Ash didn't waste a moment, he sprinted across the small space, hefted the axe over his head and shouted a battle cry filled with fury and vengeance, swinging the axe one-handed diagonally. The blade struck Ed's face and cracked his skull, cleaving off a corner of his entire head and sending it flying. Ed clutched his wounded face, but Ash didn't give him a chance to recover, he raised the axe again, bringing it down on Ed's shoulder, driving him down to the floor, where he began hacking mercilessly at his limbs. Behind him, Annie screamed in horror as she watched her fiancé being hacked to pieces.

"We live! WE LIVE STILL!" The multiple voices bellowed from Ed's mouth.

As Ash finally stepped back, panting from the exhaustion, Ed's hacked-up limbs fluttered and twitched on the floor, but his body was done-for. Ash glared down at it, he didn't know the man he'd just killed, so it was easy for him to just focus on it as striking a blow at the Evil Dead themselves. Annie though, she was taking it pretty hard. She cowered in the corner next to the desk and wept softly as Ash approached and placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She turned, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes, and Ash saw himself in her eyes… She looked like he felt, and he knew they were all in this together now.

An hour and a half later and the group had secured the cabin yet again. Ed's body was bagged up in a sheet and buried outside, along with Shelly, Linda, Scott and Cheryl, the last two of whom they'd also taken the time to bury, although Ash couldn't be certain which pieces belonged to who. Annie hadn't spoken to anyone since Ed had been killed, but Ash couldn't figure if she was in shock, or just thinking. Jake was doing all he knew how to do, which was complain and spit, as he struggled to keep Bobby-Joe calm; a feat which would have been tough for a man with even a FULLY functional brain.

"Look, I've had enough of this shit!" Jake finally burst out angrily. "This place is absolutely fucked, and we best git ourselves to some help!"

"Where you gonna go for that, slim-jim?" Ash asked, an irritation building in his voice.

Jake scoffed. "We'll take the trail!" He shouted, pointing in the general direction of it out the window.

"Oh yeah?" Ash asked, leaning against the window he was indicating. "What trail would that be?"

Jake furrowed his brow in confusion, then looked out the window to prove his opponent wrong, but found that he couldn't see the trail at all for some reason. He opened his mouth to speak, then just grunted.

"Like I said, nobody goes out that door 'til daylight." Ash repeated.

"You go to hell!" Jake shouted. "You done somethin' to that trail!"

"Oh I did? I snuck off while you were taking a piss and moved some trees around? Get your head out of your ass, you dumb hick!"

Annie stood bolt upright from the desk where she'd been sitting. "Shut the hell up, all of you!"

The others in the room fell silent, looking over at her as she fumed in their direction. She crossed the room to the fireplace, staring at the cracking and popping flames. "Fighting each other isn't solving anything, and the more time we waste doing it, the more time whatever is out there has, to plan IT'S next move."

Ash nodded. "Well, I'm sort of out of my league here, I don't know anything about this evil, or that book, so what would you recommend we do, boss lady?"

Annie thought for a moment, recounting the details she'd been sorting in her head before Ash and Jake's fighting had interrupted her. "You said you burned the book, correct?" She asked Ash, who nodded. "Nothing is left of it?"

"Nothing." Ash said. "Was the only way I could stop my sister and my friend from killing me, so please don't say that was the only way to stop this mess."

"It might not be…" Annie said, "but I don't know everything about Candaarian Rites either. I can translate them, sure, but the actual folklore of it all was my father's expertise…" She said, trailing off at the end of her sentence as she got slightly choked up. She hadn't really allowed herself to grieve yet for her parents' deaths, and knew it would catch up to her soon. She just hoped that they could get out of this alive first…

"Well he aint exactly around to help us, is he?" Jake scoffed.

"Well I was thinking about that…" Annie said, shaking her head at how stupid she what she was about to suggest was. "If the Demons that Candaarians wrote about really exist, then maybe all the folklore surrounding them was accurate too."

"How's that help us?" Ash asked, intrigued now.

Annie turned to him and crossed her arms. "We can hold a séance, try to contact my father and find out if he knew how to stop this thing once and for all."

"Worth a shot, but don't you figure he'd have done it himself if he knew how?" Ash asked.

Annie nodded. "Maybe he did, but died in the process, maybe you and your friends set it free again when you played the tape."

Ash nodded back. "Hell, it's got my vote, just tell me where to light the smelly candles…"

"Aw hell, this mumbo-jumbo bullshit's a waste of time!" Jake said, waving a dismissive hand.

"You got anything better, cletus?" Ash asked. Jake glared at him for a moment, but didn't say anything.

"Alright, lets get to work then…" Annie said.

A few minutes later, the group had gathered the necessary ingredients for their ritual. They'd dug around for all the candles they could find, drawn a circle in the floor, and sat in a circle around it. Jake and Bobby-Joe had even joined in, reluctantly of course, but with nowhere else to turn, they obviously didn't want to be left out.

Annie was flipping through pages of her father's notebooks, finding various translated texts and symbols for the ones she needed for the séance, and once she'd found the right ones, she began to chant the Sumerian incantations softly. Across from her, Ash felt a moment of hesitation, the last time someone had spoken this language around him, all his friends ended up slaughtered and his hand had tried to kill him… Though Annie seemed to be much more in-the-know about this hocus pocus than he and his idiot buddies, so maybe… just maybe, she could pull it off.

"Those spirits from beyond our plane, we call out for you to join in our circle this night." Annie said, having odd flashbacks to her high school years, hanging out in her darkened bedroom with her girlfriends. "By the rights of three circles coven, we ask for those that mean us help, and no harm, come to us. All together now." She said, then continued to chant.

As Annie continued to speak the words, the others joined in, soft at first, then as a group. After a few moments, the room seemed to darken a bit, even moreso than it had been before, and the doorknobs of the room began to jiggle ominously. They continued to chant, but looked around the room with fright each time something moved, as picture frames began to fall from their perches, shattering in the corner, drawers in the dressers slammed open and shut, ghostly footsteps pounded on the roof.

"Father!" Annie shouted. "Please come to us if you are there! RAYMOND KNOWBY, THIS IS YOUR DAUGHTER, ANNIE! HEAR MY VOICE AND COME TO US!"

Suddenly, a loud, shrill scream split through the cabin and a pair of hands materialized from thin air in the center of the circle. They were glowing silver-gray, and the group could see right through them, but the real shock came as a face followed, the face of Professor Knowby.

"Father!" Annie shouted over the noise.

Knowby's eyes were all-but invisible, black holes were all that remained, and his cheek-bones overshadowed the sides of his face. His lips looked cracked and dry, and he looked down at his daughter from above the circle. "Annie…" He said, his voice shaky, filled with pain. "I… I could not survive, I'm sorry…"

"I'm here, dad, it's alright!" Annie said, tears forming in her eyes. "We need your help though. The Demon you stopped is back."

"Yes…" Knowby groaned. "It is a dark spirit, and wants all of your souls. It took Henrietta, but I took my own life before it could claim me as well." He said.

"How do we stop it, father?" She asked.

"Your salvation… lies there…" He struggled to say, pointing a shaky finger behind Annie, at the side table by the door. She followed his direction, spotting the display case containing her find. "The pages of the book." Knowby confirmed. "You will be able to find the right passage. Recite it, save my soul…" He pleaded, then twitched crying out in pain. "And your own lives!" He shouted, then suddenly his head tilted back, and he let out another scream, which echoed deafeningly through the cabin, and a burst of light shot out from where he'd been. The candles and the fireplace were all blown out by a gust of wind, and the room was plunged into actual darkness.

A moment later, Jake lit a match, using it to ignite a lantern, which he held up. "Ever'one still alive?" He asked. The room remained silent, but the others all nodded. "Good…" He said, lowering it.

"Jake, you're holdin' my hand too tight…" Bobby-Joe said, but Jake looked down, confused.

"Baby, I aint holdin' your-" He began, but stopped, his eyes widening as his gaze went to her hand and she raised it. The others' faces all went wide with horror as Ash's possessed hand clamped onto her palm. Bobby-Joe screamed in terror, flailing her arm around to get it off. She thrashed her whole body and Jake jumped up to help her, but she accidentally knocked the lantern from his grip, shattering it on the floor.

Ash quickly jumped up as the others scrambled away from the fire. He snatched a towel from the kitchen counter and soaked it with water from the sink, then rushed back and slapped at the fire with the wet cloth until it finally went out. A moment later, the lights snapped on, thanks to Annie.

The group tried to catch their breath, looking around for Ash's evil hand, but found it nowhere in sight.

"Hey…" Jake piped up from the other end of the room. "Where's Bobby-Joe?" He asked. They all looked around again, but just saw the door hanging open…

Bobby Joe sprinted blindly through the trees, screaming for help, or just screaming in general depending on one moment to the next. She was snagged and scratched by tree branches, but barely noticed in her panicked state. Suddenly though, one tree root shot up from the forest floor, colliding hard with her ankle and she shot forward, slamming into a tree trunk. She cried out in pain, clutching her ankle, leaning on the tree for support, but recoiled when the bark of the tree moved under her palm.

She looked and saw a hideous face form in the wood, and the trunk itself split jaggedly as a fanged mouth. It growled hungrily at her and she screamed again, stumbling backwards in retreat. She almost fell, but caught herself on something, looking up to find that, in reality, she'd actually BEEN caught. A vine had wrapped around her wrist and yanked her back up, her feet just barely off the ground now as more vines shot in from all directions, wrapping around her limbs tightly. She screamed in horror, swatting at the attacking forest in vain, but soon, she was completely bound by the branches, her limbs stretched outward. She screamed so loud she felt her voice crack, but soon it didn't matter, as the vines began pushing into her mouth, blocking any noise from coming out, then she felt more vines shoving into the skin of her face, neck, shoulders, tearing off her clothing as well, plunging into her flesh all over. She felt the vines swirling around and up her thighs as well, felt them shove into her ears, nose, _all_ her orifices.

The pain was so unbearable she almost didn't notice when the vines yanked her toward the monster tree, which grinned hideously at her, opening it's "mouth" in anticipation. Her eyes bugged from her head as the vines punctured her insides, and the tree swallowed her whole.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Last Chance"

The display case shattered, and Annie picked the shards aside, pulling the pages free and holding them close to the light so she could see better. Ash looked at them as well, not knowing what they said, but not wanting to feel useless either. Behind them, Jake peered desperately out the window still, regardless of the fact that he'd just been shouting her name from the porch for almost 10 minutes, until they'd pulled him back inside and bolted the door again.

"Where the hell is she?" He demanded, looking back at them.

Ash turned to him sternly. "If she went out in those woods, you can forget about her." He said, then turned back to Annie, holding one of the un-needed pages she was sifting through. Suddenly though, a sharp chill ran up his spine and he shook his head.

"What is it?" Annie asked, noticing his reaction.

"Just felt like somebody… Walked over my grave…" He said, then cleared his throat, trying to shake it off. He looked down at the page. "What's this supposed to be?" He asked, indicating the picture that took up most of the macabre flesh paper.

The picture depicted a man standing between two shattered archways, hefting a spiked weapon over his head victoriously, a headless monster laying at his feet, and another weapon with fire coming from it hung at his side. Behind the man, numerous knights stood, their fists in the air, as though cheering.

"In 1300 AD, they called this man 'the hero from the sky'. He was prophesized to be the one who destroyed the Evil Dead." Annie explained.

"Didn't do a very good job…" Ash muttered, then looked at the page Annie had stopped on. "Find it?"

She nodded. "I think I found SOMETHING at least. There's two passages here that concern the dispelling of the Evil Dead…" She began, indicating a few lines of symbols. "Recitation of the first passage will force this Evil spirit to manifest itself in the flesh, making it a physical creature."

Ash frowned. "Why the hell would we wanna do that?"

Annie pointed at the bottom portion of the page. "Because recitation of the second passage opens a rift, in time and space, forcing the physical manifestation back to it's source, where it will be destroyed."

Ash nodded. "Well alright, can you read it all?"

"Yes, I just have to-"

She was cut off by the loud 'clack!' of a shotgun breach being closed, and they both turned around to find Jake holding the gun, leveling it at both of them.

"Uh huh… That's right, I'M runnin' the show now." He said, a furious scowl on his face. "We're gonna go out in them woods and look for Bobby-Joe, NOW!"

Ash glared at him and stepped forward. "No, you idiot, you'll kill us all!" Jake hesitated, and Ash motioned to Annie. "Listen to me… Your girl is dead by now, and with these pages, at least we have a chance." Ash said, trying to keep his tone even and calm.

Jake's face twisted around a moment, and he looked from the window to the pages a few times. Then his scowl returned and he stalked over to Annie, shoving Ash aside, keeping the gun on him as he went. "Buncha mumbo-jumbo bullshit!" He said, snatching the pages from her in a tight fist. "These pages don't mean SQUAT!"

Ash and Annie watched helplessly as he backed up over to the cellar door, keeping the gun on them with one hand as he bent down, opened the door a crack to prop it open with his foot, then shoved the pages down the steps, where they scattered. He quickly moved away from the door again, letting it shut and nodded.

"Besides… Now you aint got no choice." Jake said with a growl. "Now MOVE!"

The clearing outside the cabin seemed smaller, as though the treeline had moved in on them since the last time Annie had been outside. She and Ash moved out onto the grass, their hands in the air as Jake shoved them on. Ash hesitated, she could tell even HE was scared to go out into the trees, and she didn't blame him one bit.

"I said move!" Jake shouted, then clubbed Ash in the back with the butt of the shotgun.

"You stupid, bastard!" Annie said in a sharp, but hushed tone, then crouched down, helping Ash to his feet. Ash growled angrily and turned to attack Jake, who held the gun to Ash's chin.

"I'll blow your fuckin' head off." Jake warned him.

Annie tugged at Ash's shirt, urging him to keep going so she wouldn't be the only sane person left alive with Jake… After another beat passed, Ash turned and continued forward, his hands held up. Annie shot him a thankful look, which he nodded to as they approached the trees. Jake urged them on until they couldn't walk anymore without going fully into the treeline, which even Jake didn't want to do.

"So… No trail, where to now?" Ash asked, sarcastically.

Jake paused, a look of panic on his face, as though his simple mind hadn't thought even THIS far ahead in his plan, which indeed he hadn't. Annie almost felt sorry for him by now, for he was just reacting out of fear for his wife… "B- Bobby Joe!" He shouted loudly. Both Ash and Annie looked around in fear, knowing his cries would bring anything nasty right to them. "Bobby-Joe!" He shouted again, louder this time.

...

_They'd left the cabin. The thing in the woods had been waiting all this time, and now it's chance had arrived. It spurred into motion, speeding through the trees towards the voice that cried out, and could smell the fear building among the three survivors.  
><em>_  
>...<em>

"Bobby-Joe!" Jake screamed again, shoving past the other two and peering into the trees.

"Stop! You'll get us all killed!" Ash shouted at Jake.

"Shut your mouth!" Jake shouted back, clubbing Ash in the stomach with the shotgun, then swinging it upward into Ash's jaw, knocking him off his feet, and out cold.

"Leave us alone!" Annie shouted, slapping him across the face.

"Get outta here, then!" He snapped, shoving her down with his hand. "BOBBY-JOE!" He screamed again. "Where are you, girl…" He mumbled, as the realization dawned on him that she was almost certainly dead, and no amount of screaming would bring her back. He let the gun fall from his grip and fell to his knees, crying.

Annie sat up and took hold of the gun, pulling it away from Jake, but he didn't even try to stop her. "I'm… I'm sorry." Jake mumbled. "I just… She was my whole world."

Annie's anger with him eased, and she looked around desperately. Ash was unconscious, and she got the feeling that something was approaching… Jake was her only hope right now. "Come on, lets just go back inside, okay? Help me carry Ash."

"She was everything to me… I mean, I aint much to look at, and she was so gorgeous… She loved me anyways though." He said, not hearing Annie's urges. Jake pounded his fist on the ground and stood up. "Fuckin' monsters!" He shouted at the forest. "Gimme one shot and I'll kill ya with my bare hands!"

Suddenly, Ash shot up from the ground into a standing position, roaring monstrously. His face looked sunken-in, and his eyes were blank white like the others had been… He was possessed. Annie screamed and recoiled from him, clutching the gun desperately. Jake spun around and attacked Ash, as though he was the Evil Dead itself, which, in a way he was now. He pummeled him with punches, which knocked him back with each swing. "Take that you bastards!" Jake shouted in defiance.

Evil Ash just laughed, with multiple, deep-throated voices. "Our turn…" It chuckled, then grabbed hold of Jake's shirt, and hefted the big man up over his head with his one good hand. Ash cackled evilly, and hurled Jake with all his might, sending him head-first into a tree.

Annie had seen enough by now, she pulled the trigger, but the gun clicked uselessly, and she breached it, finding both barrels empty. "Oh God…" She said, then looked up to see Evil Ash spin around to her.

"Annie…" It growled hungrily.

She gasped, and sprinted back toward the cabin, still clutching the gun as she ran. She reached the door and slammed it shut just a moment before the stumbling Evil Ash reached the porch. She held the door shut as he pounded violently against it, then bolted the lock.

"ANNIE!" Evil Ash shouted, then stopped pounding and she heard his footsteps pound off the porch.

Annie searched desperately, but couldn't find any sign of the shotgun shells, and realized that Ash probably still had them in his shirt pocket, so she grabbed the Candaarian Dagger instead. She shut off all the lights in the main room, staying still to listen for any footsteps. She heard crunching leaves near the back of the cabin, and made her way down the dark main hall, trying to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible, but the creaky floorboards made it difficult. She reached the back door, and saw the door handle jiggling, trying to keep quiet. She reached for the lock instinctively, but stopped, realizing this could be her chance to get the element of surprise, and kill it.

She put her back to the wall to the left of the door, hefting the knife up, ready to strike when the door opened. The knob turned all the way, and the door slowly creaked open, the sound piercing the otherwise silent corridor, and she saw the figure step in. She lunged forward, and it spun around just as she thrust the knife forward into his gut.

The figure froze, and clutched the knife in surprise, and Annie hit the light switch, revealing Jake standing there before her, the Dagger sticking out of his stomach. He chortled in pain, and fell to his knees, then onto his side, still holding the handle of the knife.

"N-No…" She said, looking down at the blood on her hands. "I… I didn't mean…"

She backed away from the groaning, wounded man, her back hitting the corner of the room. She didn't know what to do, and would have stayed frozen if Evil Ash's hand hadn't plunged through the glass of the window and grabbed hold of her hair through the space between the boards Ash had patched it with earlier. Ash laughed raucously and tried to yank her outside with him, but she screamed and delivered a hard punch to his arm, slamming it against the wooden board.

His grip was broken, and she immediately ran to the back door, kicking it shut.

Except it didn't shut.

A cry of pain told her that she'd just kicked the door into Jake's back, and she looked down to find him blocking the doorway. She cried out in horror and reached down, yanking him clear just as she heard Evil Ash's footsteps on the back porch. She once again kicked the door shut, and latched it this time, unprepared for a fight now.

She grabbed Jake by the arms and started trying to pull him back to the main room, where the axe was still leaning against the desk. Jake cried out in agony.

"Goddamn you, woman!" He screamed. "Do I look like a fuckin' monster!"

"I'm sorry!" She shouted, struggling to heft his weight down the hall. Her blood-slicked hands lost their grip halfway there though, and she slipped, falling onto her rear and dropping Jake roughly to the floor. He screamed loudly again, coughing raggedly as he did.

Annie panicked, she knew Evil Ash would be on them again in a moment, and Jake was giving away their position in the house. "Shut up! SHUT UP!" She shouted at him, then continued to pull him down the hall.

After a few excruciatingly loud, and painful minutes, they finally reached the main room of the cabin, and Annie managed to put Jake up against the front wall, in a position that didn't cause him agony. "Get… Get the axe…" Jake said weakly. "Kill him when he comes back…"

Annie's eyes stung with tears, this was the only person left alive besides her, and she'd probably just killed him by the back door… She grabbed the axe and hefted it up, trying to anticipate where Evil Ash would be coming next.

"Check the windows he's probably-"

The cellar door suddenly burst open, and Henrietta screamed in delight, reaching out. She grabbed Jake by the shoulders, and he cried out in terror, trying to hold onto the window sill, but Henrietta was strong, and being stabbed hadn't helped him out much… She grabbed him on the sides of the head and yanked him head-first under the cellar door, giggling and morphing her head into that of the demonic one that had attacked them earlier.

"NO!" Annie screamed and rushed toward Jake to help him. Jake cried for help, pleaded for her to save him, but the Demonic old woman in the basement was too strong, and his whole upper-body was soon vanished below the door. Annie wouldn't let go though, and screamed as a torrent of blood shot from below the cellar door all over her. Somewhere in her mind she knew that Jake had stopped screaming, and couldn't imagine what would be left of him if she DID manage to pull him free, so finally, she let go, and he was yanked down into the cellar, a trail of blood and chunks of flesh left behind on the floor behind him.

"Oh God no!" She said, backing away from the cellar in horror. There was nobody else left now… The breeze from the open front door was cold against the warm blood covering her now and…

The front door was open.

She spun around to get the axe, but Evil Ash was standing right there, and grabbed hold of Annie's shoulders. She screamed and fought hard, scratching and punching him with all her might, but Evil Ash simply picked her up, whipping her through the air into the wall.

Annie's body hit the floor hard, and Ash cackled evilly, eyeing her fallen form. The bare legs, the blood-soaked shirt… "Oh yeah…" He growled in anticipation, and moved toward her.

He lunged at Annie, who started swatting and screaming, trying desperately to fight him off. Evil Ash was too strong though, and giggled in delight as his hand ripped at her shorts, trying to shred them off her.

"No, no no!" She begged. "Please don't!"

Annie kicked as hard as she could, knocking him back a bit, but he was on her again in an instant, pressing his right forearm into her throat, and tugging her now undone shorts down. She screamed a shrill, desperate cry, reaching for anything to defend her self with. She whipped books, papers, pencils, anything she could at him. Finally, a small, silver chain was in her grip, and she swung it as hard as she could. It struck Ash in the face, cutting him across the lips diagonally.

He grunted angrily and she swung again, but he grabbed her attacking arm with his left hand, striking her across the face with his wrist-stump. Her eyelids fluttered and she passed out.

He looked to her hand, finding a necklace in her clutches, and picked it up curiously. Something inside him stirred at the sight of it, and a realization came over him. 'Linda…' Something inside said.

"No…" Ash said, clutching the necklace tighter now. Not another one. He would NOT kill someone else that he cared for. "NOT AGAIN!" His real voice screamed. Evil Ash fell to his knees, and his face contorted painfully, his eyes regaining their pigment. "AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in fury, then fell forward, suddenly in control of his body once again.

Ash rose back up to a kneeling position, cold sweat beading from his brow, and he tried to catch his breath, looking at the necklace, then down at Annie, and he realized how foolish he'd been. Linda had been his first love, but Linda was gone now… and he cared very much about Annie for some reason… Maybe the man he'd become was uncontrollably attracted to the strong, capable woman she'd become, but whatever the reason, Ash felt like he HAD to keep Annie alive.

'CRASH!'

The head of the axe collided with the floor-boards just to Ash's left, and he jumped away from it in fear. He looked behind him to find Annie there, conscious, and wielding the weapon like a warrior woman.

Ash pressed his back up against the wall next to the couch, holding out his hand and stump to Annie. "No! No wait, wait!" He shouted, but she didn't stop, she screamed in fury and swung the axe horizontally at him. He ducked just in time, and the head smashed into the wall where HIS head had been a moment before.

Ash lunged forward, wrapping his right arm around her body and grabbing her axe-holding wrist with his good hand. "I'm alright now, I'm alright!" He shouted. "That thing is gone now!"

He released her, and she fell into a sitting position. He let her keep hold of the axe, and backed away, his heart feeling like it was going to pop out of his chest from his near-death experience… (a feeling he was creepily getting used to now).

He backed away, leaning against the wall once more to catch his breath, but suddenly the axe slammed into the wall next to him once more. Annie thought the Evil Dead was using Ash to screw with her.

"Damn it, I said I was alright!" He shouted angrily. He knocked her hand off the axe handle, leaving it sticking out of the wall, then grabbed her face with his good hand, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Are you listenin' to me? Do you hear what I'm saying!" He demanded. "I'm ALRIGHT!" Ash shouted. He then realized that he must look insane right now, so he released her again, still locking eyes with her and pointing at his chest. "I'm alright…" He repeated, calmer this time.

Annie stared at him, tears in her eyes, and she buttoned her shorts once more. Ash remembered what he'd almost done, and didn't blame her for being so quick to hack him up.

She finished fixing her clothes and glared at him. "Okay maybe you are… But for how long?" She demanded.

If Ash had been on the fence before, he now was sure that he liked this girl… She didn't play into the bullshit, and in some way, she'd seen through the Evil Dead's games faster than he had the night before. Was she right? Was he just temporarily released? This wasn't the first time he'd been possessed, then let go… But was he even really free right now, or had the others all thought they were okay when they'd looked like themselves again? Ash couldn't know for sure.

"Listen," Annie said, snapping him back to attention and placing a comforting hand on his cheek. "We need those pages if we're gonna get out of this alive."

Ash looked at her a moment. "Yeah… You're right." He said, eyeing the cellar door. "So let's get ourselves ready, head down into that cellar… and carve ourselves a witch."

Down below, Henrietta heard them as she picked the last of the meat from Jake's bones… and she cackled in amusement. Another pair of fresh souls to eat. "How delightful." She said, then burst out another guffaw of laughter.


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Witch Hunt"

The work-shed door burst open, and two flashlight beams fell across the blood-soaked work benches that Ash had done his best to clean off earlier. Ash was beyond caring about such things now though, and simply dragged his hand across the bench, shoving aside the drying crusty remains of Linda, shoving old screws, wrenches and hammers aside to clear a space to work with. Annie hit the light, so they set aside their flashlights, and a rat scurried away from the humans invading his meal time.

Ash heaved the chainsaw up onto the bench, and Annie passed him the screw-gun. An hour passed as Ash and Annie worked together opening the saw up, and Ash used his knowledge of motors to re-rig the trigger mechanism, attaching a piece of metal, and cable to it. This he fed through the body of the saw and connected it to the rip-chord, effectively making the tool one-handed. After this was completed, Ash found an aluminum pipe-clamp, and screwed the clamp into the back of the chainsaw itself. He then stuck his wrist in, and screwed it tightly to his forearm.

Annie meanwhile had been rigging up a series of leather straps to her father's old shotgun scabbard that they'd brought from the cabin. When she finished, Annie helped Ash don the harness, and attached a V-hook to the front, near Ash's right shoulder, which he hooked the pull-chord handle of the chainsaw into.

Finally, the two looked at one-another, and Annie nodded to him. "Go for it." She said, hopeful that their plan would work.

Ash hooked the pull-chord handle into the V-hook once again, and yanked downward with all his might. The saw sputtered loudly, then did nothing. Ash grimaced, but re-hooked it and yanked down once more, with the choke all the way up. The mechanism inside did it's duty this time, and the saw roared to life, the blade jerking as the chain spun. Ash raised it and let it idle a moment to make sure it wouldn't die, then extended his arm, making the engine roar and the chain spin once again. He smirked and nodded, satisfied.

Annie meanwhile had gotten the steel saw and finished sawing off 6 inches from the tip of the double barrel shotgun, handing it to Ash. He held the gun aloft, testing the new weight. Satisfied that he could much more easily wield it one-handed, he spun it a few times on his finger, then stuck the gun into the scabbard on his back. "Groovy." He said.

They were ready.

Back inside the cabin, Annie hefted the axe up, as she had proven herself quite effective with it before, and Ash fired up the chainsaw once again. Jake had the keys to the cellar door on him when he'd been taken down by Henrietta, so he shoved the blade of the saw right through the boards of the door, slicing down the middle. When he'd gotten through, he retracted his arm, letting the saw idle once again, and then kicked hard, shattering the door inward.

Ash and Annie readied themselves in case Henrietta came at them, but all was silent in the cellar. They looked knowingly at one-another, and Ash stepped down onto the staircase. She was gonna make them come to her.

Ash slowly descended, the chainsaw putting softly on the end of his arm, his muscles straining to keep it aloft as he made his way down. His eyes darted all over the cellar, the layout familiar to him by this point. He spotted one page at the bottom of the steps, so he scooped it up and tucked it into his shirt quickly. He looked around, but nothing moved to attack him, so he kept on moving.

Ash spotted another page next to the door on the opposite end of the cellar, the one leading to the room where he and Scotty had found the book and the tape recorder. Ash carefully stepped around the pools of blood that had been collecting in the cellar floor since last night, and kept turning quickly to lessen the chances of being ambushed from behind. He revved the saw every once in awhile to keep it from shutting off, but this put him on edge, as it cut down on his ability to hear well in the otherwise silent basement.

The door creaked loudly as usual when Ash tugged it open. He peered inside, saw nothing, so he scooped up the couple pages laying on the floor. He was about to head back to the stairs, when he saw them… The last two pages, on the floor, at the opposite end of the second room, next to Knowby's desk.

Ash looked over his shoulder at the seemingly empty basement behind him, then back into the other room. This entire thing would be for nothing if he didn't get all the pages, so he stepped inside, revving the saw again to hopefully intimidate Henrietta if she was watching and waiting.

Each step was agonizing, every bit of ground he crossed in the cellar felt like he was walking deeper and deeper into a trap, but he had no choice. He suddenly spun around to face the way he'd come, revving the saw once more… But only silence greeted him when he let the saw idle again.

Ash waited a moment, then backed up the last few steps to the corner until he felt the desk behind him. He kept his eyes on the room, intently as he crouched down to pick up the pages, feeling around on the cold stone floor. He felt something and his fingers sought it out, but it wasn't the pages… It felt gooey.

Ash looked down in horror to find that there, stuffed behind the desk, was the partially devoured corpse of Jake, flesh stripped almost completely down to the bone now. Ash recoiled and wiped the gore from his hand, then grabbed the pages, which were still laying on the ground next to the desk.

He snagged them up, stuffed them into his shirt with the others, then immediately headed back towards the door, passing through it, and ducking under the gourds, still hanging from the ceiling. He passed the burned out projector, the blood puddles from his previous night of horror, and reached the staircase once again.

"The pages!" Annie said in a hushed, but excited tone, setting the axe aside to reach down for them. Ash folded them in half and then tossed the small stack up to her, quickly turning back to the room as he heard something heavy fall towards the back of the room.

"Hurry up, Annie…" Ash said, making his way backwards up the staircase.

Upstairs, he heard Annie starting to recite the words of the first passage, and for just a moment, he considered the fact that they MIGHT have pulled this off… He should have known better.

A beastly screech sounded from below him, and Ash felt two strong, clawed hands seize him by the ankles, having reached out from beneath the stairs. Ash cried out in surprise and pain as the hand squeezed his injured ankle, then Henrietta yanked his feet through the gap between steps, toppling Ash face-first down the staircase, where he hit the ground HARD. The Chainsaw revved, but the dirt floor caused it to choke, and die. Ash groaned in pain, but felt the hands yanking him back even further and pulled him all the way through the stairs into the darkness below them.

Upstairs, Annie heard Ash cry out, then heard his Chainsaw die, but kept reading, until she heard the staircase smash into pieces and a dull 'Thud!' of someone hitting the wall downstairs. She froze, looking at the cellar doorway. "A-Ash?" She said, slowly moving toward the Axe she'd set aside to get the pages.

Suddenly, Henrietta's monstrous, bloated, rotting form shot up from the cellar, floating in mid-air. She screeched at Annie, who screamed in fear, and tried to retreat into the kitchen to keep reciting the passages. She only made it a few steps though, and a hand clamped down on her hair from above. She cried out in pain and looked up to find Henrietta hovering above her head, floating in the air. Annie thrashed to try and break free, but it was impossible, as Henrietta yanked her all over the cabin's main room by her hair, laughing insanely. "What fun!" She shouted.

Ash pushed himself up, shoving the broken staircase boards off himself. His left sleeve had been ripped completely off, and Henrietta had clawed him down the left side of his chest, but the wounds were minor scratches, nothing compared to the anguish he'd already suffered. Something inside Ash shifted, and the pain of his injuries was pushed aside. A fury and will to fight welled up inside of the man, and he reached up as high as he could, gripping the lip of the cellar door, then hefting the heavy chainsaw up, using it's weight and his left hand's grip, pulling as hard as he could and climbing up from the cellar.

He groaned and grunted, finally getting up out of the basement to see Henrietta tormenting Annie without mercy. He'd had enough.

Ash whistled loudly and Henrietta's head turned toward him, roaring angrily. She released Annie's hair and her body swung around in the air to face Ash, who jerked his head in a 'come hither' motion. "Let's go."

Henrietta roared again and shot through the air toward him like someone had fired her from a cannon. Ash re-hooked the pull-chord of the saw and fired it up, but Henrietta landed on the floor in front of him and caught him by the wrist mid-swing. She shoved him back into the wall and lunged teeth-first at him, but Ash was faster. He drove his boot straight into Henrietta's massive bloated stomach and heard something burst inside it, and some kind of goop started plopping to the floor from beneath her shredded dress. He then hefted the saw over his head and slammed it down on top of Henrietta's skull, knocking her to the floor.

A cacophony of garbled, mangled noises emitted from her mouth and her head morphed once more into the Demonic creature she truly was. Her neck shot up and curved around like a snake, now letting her head tower over Ash, who could only stare as she did. "I'll SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!" She screeched, and her head shot down to do just that. Ash simply balled up his fist though, and drove it right into the side of her face, knocking it off-course. He revved the saw up and swung with all his might, but Henrietta's body stepped out of his arm's length, and her head slammed down into his, knocking him dizzy.

Ash looked up as Henrietta prepared to strike again, but then they both heard Annie's voice.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word…" She sang, and Henrietta's body froze. The long neck turned, and her monstrous face seemed to soften a bit, almost looking sad. "Momma's gonna buy you a… Mocking bird." Annie said, trying not to stammer.

Ash meanwhile stepped behind Henrietta, seizing the opportunity Annie had given him, and revved the saw full-blast, thrusting it right through Henrietta's back and out her chest, spraying blood and gore everywhere. Henrietta howled in agony and Annie swung the axe, clubbing her flopping head back toward Ash, who punched it down to the floor. He then swung the saw vertically, lopping off one of her arms, then the other. He then side-stepped and swung the saw once more, cleaving right through her neck and spraying more blood all over the front wall of the cabin. The head plopped down on the floor next to him and dribbled blood from it's neck and mouth as it flopped like a fish.

"Hey!" It shouted. "I'll swallow your soul!"

Ash stomped down on the neck, stopping it's flopping, and pulled the shotgun from the holster on his back. "Swallow this."

'BOOM!'

The shotgun blast echoed through the silence of the cabin and then all was quiet once more. Henrietta's body toppled over and didn't move again. Ash blew the smoke off the tip of his gun, then re-holstered it on his back. He then turned at the sound of Annie sobbing, spotting her leaning against the desk, almost falling over from the quivering in her shoulders. He's just dismembered and killed her mother right in front of her… Demon yes, but it still had to hurt.

He made his way over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, trying to control the sobs. "I… It just hit me. Sorry."

Ash nodded. "It's alright, let it out, kiddo." He said.

Annie threw her arms around him and pulled him close, sobbing hard for another few moments, then her sobs slowed, her shoulders stopped shuddering so much, and she pulled back, looking up at him. She still had the grief on her face, but there was a sort of peace in her eyes. Ash felt that same sensation and tried to muster the best smile he could for the situation…

Annie leaned her face toward his, and closed her eyes, and Ash couldn't help but do the same.

Suddenly though, the calm silence was shattered as the ENTIRE cabin shuddered like a giant had just kicked the side wall. The two were thrown off-balance by the hit, and looked around in confusion. "Oh God." Annie said.

"What? What is it?" Ash asked, then another massive hit rocked the cabin in the other direction.

"I only read the first of the passages, to make the Evil a thing of the flesh!" Annie shouted over the deafening noise, as more and more THINGS hit the cabin, smashing it so hard the wood started to crack. Ash feared the whole place was coming down on top of them, and the furniture slid all over the place, threatening to knock them over.

"Hurry up and read the second one! NOW!" Ash shouted, then felt the tingle in the back of his head… It was coming.

...

_The thing in the woods was angry. It was experiencing something it was not accustomed to, and was NOT willing to let go unpunished… It was in pain. The agony of being ripped from a spiritual form and bonded to the very forests it mastered like a puppeteer was immeasurable. The thing in the woods rushed toward the front of the cabin, feeling a BODY forming around it, the bark of the trees lunging toward it and wrapping around it's essence, the texture of it morphing into flesh, and with it came new agonies. It could feel everything… and the thing in the woods wanted blood for this insult._

_..._

Ash spun as the front wall of the cabin shattered, and a monstrous face shoved itself through the gap. It was horrible to look at, puss-covered flesh, raw like an open wound was what made up it's 'skin', if one could call it that… It's eyes were open sores full of ever-seeping white fluid, the center of which held a purple sack of purplish sludge. The mouth was a vast maw of teeth, rows upon rows of them, like a shark's, and dotting the face like little white heads, were the faces of those that the Evil had taken. Henrietta, Cheryl, Shelly, Linda, Scotty, Bobby-Joe, Jake, all of them were there.

Ash felt a squeezing sensation on his heart, like the mere sight of it was shaving years off his life, and his mind was buzzing with incomprehensible terror of this thing before him. He backed away from it, grabbing hold of Annie to stop her from turning too. "Don't look at it, Annie, just keep reading. Get rid of it!" He shouted in desperation.

"CANDAAR! IGRATO! CANDAAR!" Annie shouted over the massive boomings of the trees outside pounding on the cabin, the shattering windows, the crunching of the cabin's foundation. Ash revved up the chainsaw, facing the creature without a HINT of bravery left… He was terrified, but with nowhere to go, he chose fight, not flight.

"IGIDIDE, ACADEEM- UGH!" Annie shouted behind him.

Ash spun around, seeing Annie reaching behind herself, a wide-eyed expression of horror on her face as she toppled forward, revealing Ash's possessed hand clutching the Candaarian Dagger… Which was jammed into Annie's back. It hopped off the knife and scurried away as Ash rushed over to her. "NO!" He screamed.

_Outside, Annie's words had been getting results, flashes of lightning and a mighty wind whipped through the woods, shaking all the trees, possessed or otherwise, and making Ash's car shudder, groaning in protest as a swirling vortex began to form in mid-air just behind the massive hulking form of the Evil Dead's flesh form. It was ignorant of what was happening though, because Annie couldn't finish the spell, and the vortex would not be able to pull it in._

"WE'VE WON!" A chorus of demonic voices shouted, coming from deep inside the maw of the Evil Dead, and from the mouths of it's victims all over it's face. "VICTORY IS OURS!"

Ash clenched his jaw, holding Annie as she looked up at him weakly, her hair blew wildly in the gusts of wind, and she gripped the pages of the Necronomicon tightly in her hand. Ash laid her down gently on her side, turning to once again face the Evil Dead creature. He revved the chainsaw and rushed at it, swiping across it's face and carving a massive bloody gash just under it's eye. Purple blood sprayed from the wound, hitting Ash, but he ignored it, and shouted a battle cry, shoving the saw right into the monster's eyeball. Another gush of purple blood flowed from it's pupil and it screeched in a deafening cry of pain. A massive hand punched through the ceiling of the cabin, grabbing hold of Ash, but he held fast, revving the saw full-blast in the creature's eye socket, determined to cause it as much pain as he could before it took him.

He felt the hand clamp down around him and could barely breath as it pushed Ash toward it's mouth, chomping it's teeth eagerly. Ash ripped the saw out and swung it vertically down in front of him, ripping through the fingers of the creature, crippling it's hand.

"Ackamemnon! Ackadeem!" Annie shouted weakly from the floor. "Candaar, Candaar!" She struggled, but her strength gave out, and the pages flew from her grip in the strong wind. She rested her face on the wood floor of the cabin, unable to even lift it anymore.

Ash's feet hit the ground again, and he revved the saw full blast once more, preparing another assault.

"Can…daar…" Annie mumbled out, almost inaudibly in the noise around her, but it was enough.

Ash saw his car fly up into the air and plunge into the swirling vortex, but it wasn't alone. The creature screeched, locking it's one good eye with Ash's eyes, and he stared it down defiantly as it was pulled back. Desperately, it clung to the cabin like a life-line, but the cabin would be ripped up too from the pull of the vortex. Ash struggled against the powerful suction, making his way to the creature's remaining hand, clamped down around the fireplace. He raised the chainsaw, gunned the engine, and sawed straight down through it's fingers.

The creature let out one final scream of anger, and was sucked back away from the cabin and into the vortex, where it exploded into billions of pieces, and then burned to ashes, which vanished into the void. Ash stumbled over to Annie's form, struggling over the roar of the vortex as he lifted her up. "You did it, kid!" He turned her over, but saw her eyes fluttering, and blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, and knew she was in bad shape. Ash felt his heart sink. "No, not you too…"

Suddenly, the wind kicked up extra hard, and Ash felt his body lurch from it. The rest of the cabin wasn't moving, Annie wasn't moving, but he was being pulled into the vortex now too! "What the hell!" He shouted, lunging for the kitchen countertop, and his legs were pulled out from under him. Ash screamed in pain as he felt like his fingers were going to be ripped off. The Chainsaw's weight almost pulled him back, but he whipped it forward, and wedged it between the counter and the pass-through window. "For god's sake, how do you stop it!" He shouted, but Annie had gone limp, probably dead.

Then, Ash realized what had happened. He had a piece of the Evil Dead inside him. He had been possessed, and that had tainted his soul, so the vortex wanted him too, it had to purge ALL of the Evil Dead before it would close… Ash felt the cabin itself shudder once again, and knew the vortex would take the whole thing if it couldn't have him… Ash closed his eyes tightly, let go with his hand, and now only held on by the chainsaw blade wedged into the counter. He said a prayer for himself, and begged all his dead friends for forgiveness… Then yanked the saw free.

He screamed and tumbled through the air, spinning around and around toward the endless vortex in front of the cabin, not knowing what awaited him inside. He felt his body hit the other side of the void and his whole being was jerked violently as he tumbled through the vortex into endlessness. Blackness engulfed him and brilliant, blinding lights flashed at him from all directions as he spun. Then, there was no sound at all as he fell. He felt himself still screaming, but no sound could be heard, and he just fell into the inky blackness… Nothing left to do, no way out.

Then, he felt nothing, no falling, no pain, nothing. He didn't even feel his body anymore, and couldn't see anything except whiteness around him. The only thing Ash J. Williams felt now, was an odd sense of calm, he knew, and had accepted, that for him, this was…

THE END.

EPILOGUE

A flash of light, or rather the flash of the VANISHING of light. The whiteness was gone, Ash could feel his body once more, and he was falling again. Not in a void though, he felt gravity and wind hitting his face. Then he opened his eyes, and saw the ground coming up at him.

He hit the ground hard, face-down, and violently, feeling like he may have bruised one of his ribs as he bounced, landing on his back, finally coming to a stop.

"Ugh…" Was all he could muster, coughing to regain his ability to breath. He gasped for air, finally managing to get enough to assure himself he wasn't going to suffocate. He opened his eyes, but the sunlight above stung, due to the amount of time he'd been in the dark… Where the hell was he?

After a few moments, Ash pushed himself up into a sitting position, realizing he heard people and horses around him. Ash looked around, finding dead men scattered all around where he'd landed. "Where the hell…?" He mumbled.

He found himself standing in the middle of what almost looked like a rock quarry, a high-rising cliff edge was a few hundred yards away from him, and the ground was all made of dirt and rock. He thought he could see some kind of stone blocks underneath the dirt though…

Suddenly, a group of men came running toward him, and the first thing Ash noticed about them was that they were, from head-to-toe, dressed in armor, and the second thing he noticed was, they all had swords pointed at him.

Behind the men in armor, a man in robes, with a long white beard, came riding up on horseback.

Ash held his hand up defensively at the knights surrounding him, still pointing their weapons at him.

"Slay the beast!" The bearded man commanded. "I sense evil within his soul!"

"Tis a Deadite!" One of the knights shouted, and motioned to the others to all prepare to stab Ash.

"Woah! Easy now! I'm not!" Ash pleaded, but they ignored him.

What they DIDN'T ignore though, was the beastly screech that came from the sky behind them. The knights all spun around quickly, spotting a winged creature flying straight toward them. It looked like a snake with wings, forearms and a spiked tail. The bearded man on the horse kicked his feet to urge his mount to flee from it, and the knights all forgot about Ash. "Retreat! Back to the castle!" One shouted, and they took off.

Ash frowned. This wasn't right. The Evil Dead shouldn't be here… The vortex was supposed to kill it. He stood up defiantly, pulling the shotgun from the scabbard on his back and leveling it at the fast-approaching monster. It's forearms reached out and it's jaw opened hungrily. Ash stood firm, waiting until the right moment, and then, when it was merely a few yards away, he fired.

'BOOM!'

The shell exploded the creatures head in a violent splatter of bone and blood, and the creature's body tensed, sending it gliding to the ground, where it crashed, skidding to a stop just in front of Ash's feet. He looked down at it and spit on it's corpse.

Behind him, he heard gasps, and clanking armor, so he turned to face the knights who had started to flee, and then he noticed a few more things…

His car was laying a few yards away from him, looking like it had fallen from the sky too, there were many more knights in armor, all wearing blue decals on their chest pieces, and the bodies around him were wearing red ones, and above and behind them, was a massive castle, nestled into the side of a cliff.

The man with the beard got down off his horse and slowly approached cautiously. He walked with a large staff now, and eyed Ash curiously, but only for a moment, then his eyes widened with realization. "Hail he who has come from the skies to deliver us from the terrors of the Deadites! HAIL!"

All around the bearded man, the knights began punching their fists in the air. "HAIL!" they shouted with each pump of their fists. Ash too widened his eyes in realization… also terror. He looked around and saw on either side of him two shattered columns, looked down at the creature, facing away from the army of knights behind him.

"No…" He mumbled. "No." He repeated. "NO!" Ash screamed, turning back to them. "NO!" He insisted, but the knights all kept chanting. "NOOOOO!" Ash screamed in protest, but he knew they weren't listening.

He knew there would be no ending for him, because like Annie said… 'The hero from the skies' had to destroy the Evil.

And that was him now.


End file.
